Questionable Morality
by WeEattheUglyOnes
Summary: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object? Do they destroy each other or combine into something new? Loki, the God of Mischief, meets Nova, the Queen of Crime, and neither will give an inch, but you can guarantee that sparks will fly!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Just a Typical Night on the Town

Nova Yelana Stepanov paused on the balcony overlooking the club. Even though it was early for a Friday night, the dance floor was already a mass of writhing bodies, pressing up against each other in pairs or groups in public pantomimes of sex. Despite the vaulted ceiling reaching up four stories, the dropped lighting fixtures giving off scant illumination projected the feeling of intimacy on the floor. The deep balconies that surrounded the floor and three of the four walls were still mostly empty, but they would fill up soon as the night wore on. By midnight, there would be a line at the entrance waiting to get in that would not taper off until close to closing time just before dawn.

A long bar spanned the length of the wall across from her, mirrored shelves artfully covering half the wall with colorful bottles and glassware of various shapes and sizes. Anything higher than six feet, however, was there just for looks, the liquid in the bottle ordinary tap water dyed to look like alcohol. Only two of the five bartenders were busy filling drink orders. Soon all five would be busy, but now they took the time to get the bar organized for the rush.

Above the bar, a twenty-foot LED TV filled the space between the top of the shelves and the ceiling. A Post Malone video was currently playing on it, by design not matching the dance music that filled the club with its reverberating base. It had been an extravagant expense, but Andrei, the club's manager, convinced her it would help draw in customers. He had been right, as always; the press had almost screamed about it from the rooftops of downtown L.A., and the crowds had flocked in for a chance to see the largest TV screen on the coast. That had been three years ago; now it was no longer the largest, not even in the top ten, but the crowds had stayed. Her club was consistently near the top of the list of most popular nightclubs in the city.

"Gospozha," one of her bodyguards cleared his throat to get her attention, "they are waiting."

"Let them wait a bit," she bit out. She was not some prisluzhnik to be summoned, especially not in her own club. Her cold blue eyes narrowed as she picked out a handful of men scattered around her club not trying to blend in, probably additional security for the ass that was waiting in her office. She picked an imaginary piece of lint off her immaculate dove grey Sergeenko suit and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear before turning and ascending the final set of stairs to her office. She could have taken her private elevator, but she preferred to come in through the club and climb the stairs. The differential treatment and nods of respect as she passed through served to remind her of who she was and the power she wielded.

The bodyguard opened the door to her office and preceded her inside, she only followed when he indicated it was safe by stepping aside to hold the door for her. The plush carpet of the room swallowed the sharp clip of her Louboutin heels as she entered the space. The door behind her shut out the loud music from the club, but the base still thrummed through the walls like a heartbeat of some great beast. The three men in the room rose in unison at her entrance and she moved forward to greet the short man standing in front of her desk.

"Zhū Sheng," Nova said with a slight smile and bow, "it is a pleasure to meet you." She stretched out her hand to shake his.

"Ms. Stepanov, thank you for seeing me on such short notice," the L. A. representative of the Tai Huen Chai triad replied, shaking her hand briefly before dropping it with a slight look of distaste. She expected as much, the Chinese triads didn't have a lot of tolerance for women in positions of power, but they were forced to deal with her since she was the head of the Stepanov family, the most powerful Russian organized crime organization on the West Coast. Her father had dealt successfully with the Chinese for decades, but since she had taken up his mantel six years ago, they had been a constant thorn in her side. If she had a better source of heroin, she would dispense with them altogether, but it appears she was stuck with them until a better option came up.

"Please, have a seat," she invited Zhū Jian as she moved around to her side of the desk to place herself in a position of power. "May I offer you a drink?" she asked, sinking into her chair.

"No, thank you," Zhū replied as he also took a seat. In both their cultures, it was considered rude to refuse an offer of hospitality. Well, two could play that game.

"When can I expect the next shipment?" she asked, getting straight to business and ignoring the fact that he was the one that called for the meeting, knowing that it would both irritate the man and put him off balance. She already knew the answer but was curious to see how he would answer.

His already thin lips thinned even more before he answered. "There have been… complications."

"Complications?" she raised an eyebrow at the word. "Is that what you are calling the coup that was just attempted in your organization?" Oh, yes, Nova thought, I know all about the attempt on your life and the stolen shipment of product that they had yet to recover. She knew his organization was in chaos at this moment and he was just barely hanging on to leadership.

Zhū smiled and made a placating gesture with his hands. "That is an exaggeration. I have things under control."

"You do?" She smiles and stood up to walk around the desk and leaned on its edge in front of him. "Then why was I contacted earlier today with an offer on your missing product?"

Zhū shot out of his chair, his composure slipping, "You will not do business with these thugs!"

"I will do business with whom I please, Zhū. I would rather do business with you since we have a good relationship," her voice dripped with sarcasm. "But if we run out of product on the street, our clients will look elsewhere for what they want, and that will not be good for either of us."

She pushed away from the desk and walked over to the small bar along the wall of her office. She poured herself a finger of vodka. "Are you sure I cannot offer you a drink?" she asked over her shoulder.

Zhū sighed and sat back down in his chair, "Yes, please."

Nova smiled to herself as she turned back to the bar and poured him a shot of Baijui. Now they were getting somewhere. She passed it to him with a nod as she returned to her chair behind the desk.

"We have enough product for five days, Zhū Sheng," she said, sipping on her vodka. She tried not to make a face; she hated the liquor straight, but sometimes appearances were more important than her taste buds. "We can give you three days to recover your shipment." She held up a hand to silence his protest. "If you cannot, then we will be forced to do business with your rival. That will give us enough product for two more weeks and will keep our customers happy, and it will buy you two more weeks to regain control of your organization. If you have not regained control by then, we will have to reconsider our business arrangement."

She took another sip of the vile liquor. "Is there any assistance I can offer?" She smiled. She knew the answer to this question already, but the offer needed to be extended as a gesture of good will.

Zhū tossed back his shot of Baijui and stood. "No, thank you for your generous offer, but this is an internal issue. We can handle it." He placed the empty glass on her desk, unmindful of drip of liquor on the expensive mahogany.

"Then our business is concluded." She said rising once more. "Three days, Zhū Sheng."

"Three days, Ms. Stepanov."

They both bowed and Zhū took his leave.

Only then did Nova look at the two other men in the room, Barak, her right hand man for her heroin business, and Vanya, his second. Vanya was frowning, she could tell he didn't like her conceding anything to the Chinese, but it wasn't his decision to make. She didn't need bad blood between the triad and her organization right now. She had enough on her plate to deal with.

"Three days is going to stretch us thin, Nova," Barak started.

"We have been in business with Zhu for decades, I do not want to throw away our arrangement without giving him ample notice."

Barak barked out a laugh, "You consider three days ample notice? He is going to be scrambling like a sumasshedshiy!"

Nova smiled her first real smile of the evening, "I'm sure he is." She sat back in her chair, her smile dying, "Send Andrei in on your way out."

Loki was bored and when the god of mischief is bored nothing good can come of it. After Asgard was destroyed and what remained of the Asgardians fled to Midgard to start over, Loki was at odds with what to do with himself. He refused to live in New Asgard and he wasn't welcome in many other places despite his joining with the Avengers to help defeat Thanos. He had been traveling throughout Midgard looking for diversions for several months now, accompanied by Braggi and Volstagg at Thor's insistence. Whether they were with him for companionship or as wardens, Loki didn't care, since they made passable drinking partners and provided him with an outlet for some of his pranks. Braggi waking up naked in the Trafalgar fountains had been particularly amusing. But now even those small pranks were beginning to pale in the face of the mundaneness of this realm.

They were in Los Angeles and had already worn out their welcome in three different night clubs. Humans got a little testy over broken furniture and glass since they had no magic to readily repair these things after a drunken fight. Volstagg was dragging them to a new club, promising this one was 'the one '.

The name on the front of the building was The Firebird. At the door stood a guard that was checking humans as they entered the establishment. Bouncer, Loki corrected, they are called bouncers. It seemed like a ludicrous title, but humans rarely made much sense.

Early on in their travels, they had learned that it was easier to gain entrance to establishments if they blended in with the human population, so they had discarded their Asgardian raiment for the plainer garb of this realm. Loki was clad in the uncomfortable trousers called "jeans" and a dark green silk shirt. Braggi and Volstagg were also wearing jeans, but they had opted for black cotton shirts with obnoxious pictures on them: one that had people waving lasers and flying space craft that said 'May the force be with you,' and the other had some guy dressed in a skin-tight red and black suit complete with full-face mask and two swords strapped to his back saying 'Fuck off, Dickface.' Humans were strange indeed.

The inside of the club was dim and loud, just like all the others they had been to, even though it was much larger on the inside than he expected. The dance floor was crowded with humans engaged in their bizarre interpretation of dancing. Braggi pointed up at one of the balconies that lined the walls and yelled over the noise "I'll get us drinks and bring them up!" Loki and Volstagg nodded their understanding and wove through the crowd to get to the stairs leading up.

Up on the highest balcony, the music wasn't quite as loud, and their table had a commanding view of the entire club. On this level, only the two walls on either side of the giant video screen had tables and seating; the wall opposite the screen was taken up by a large reflective glass window that blocked the view through to the other side. There was also a door in the wall with a security keypad next to it. Two large guys stood on the walkway on either side of the door as if on guard. Loki idly wondered what was on the other side as he watched a man in a dark blue suit approached, nodded to the big guys, entered a code on the pad and walked through the door.

Shortly after they sat down, a generously endowed woman clad in a minuscule skirt and ridiculously high heels approached them and asked them what they wanted to drink. They both ordered a picture of ale even though Braggi was also procuring drinks. They figured it wouldn't go to waste.

Loki sat back to watch the people in the club and plot what to do about his boredom.

Nova was angry. Andrei, the manager of her club was standing in front of her and feeding her a line of bullshit. She had been hearing rumors about someone selling cocaine in her club for a few weeks and had sent one of her junior lieutenants to investigate. What he brought back to her had been disturbing. It wasn't some random punk moving coke at her club, it was her manager. Not only was he breaking one of her rules by selling product at her place of business, but he wasn't giving her any kickback from the sales. He also was not authorized to sell any of her product, so he was getting it from somewhere else. That was three strikes. Now he stood there and denied any wrongdoing. He was trying to blame it on one of the bartenders.

She knew better. Her lieutenant had brought her video footage shot from a cell phone to support his findings. Andrei was clearly selling coke to a couple of customers in one of the stockrooms in the back. She was furious. You just did not shit where you lived. Her father had taught her that. Keeping the club clean protected both it and her. It was a safe place where she didn't have to worry about police raids or rival gang shootings. Andrei was putting it in danger with his greed.

She wanted to get up and smash a bottle across his smug face, but her father had also taught her to control her rage. She had always had a quick temper and was in quite a few fights at the private school she attended as a teenager. She had almost been expelled once for breaking a girl's nose, but her father had quietly paid off the headmaster and the girl's parents to smooth it over. After that incident, he had sat her down and had a long talk with her about her temper. He taught her that people would respect her more if she controlled her anger; that cold, calculated decisions had a higher return than those made in the heat of the moment. Over the years that followed, she learned to channel her rage and direct it to more acceptable outlets. She learned that people not only respected her more for her control, but they were more fearful of her quiet, cold rage than her hot temper.

"Andrei, I have video footage of you making a sale in one of the storerooms, so quit lying to me," she said in a low voice as she came around the desk and approached her manager. He took a nervous step back, but Feliks, one of her bodyguards, stepped up behind him.

"It wasn't me, Gospozha! You have the wrong guy! I've been set up. Markus wants my job and is trying to make me look bad!" his voice raised an octave and became whiny.

"I know what I saw on the video," she held pushed a button on the remote control and the video played on the TV on the back wall. "That certainly looks like you, Andrei." She paused the video when he handed a packet of cocaine to the other guy. "And that certainly looks like coke," she hissed between clenched teeth.

"Ok," he finally conceded. "But so what? You make your money by selling coke and H. What do you care if I sell it?" He clenched his fists and stepped closer to her in a display of dominance. He wasn't much taller than her five foot eight inches, but he had almost twice her bulk. Nova had always been slender to the point of being too thin if she skipped a few meals and Andrei worked out every day. If he wanted to, he could easily lift her over his head.

Feliks took another step forward, but she made a subtle gesture with her hand to wave him back. She needed to deal with this herself.

"It matters because I told you we do not sell in the club. Period." She stepped up and met him, her eyes even with his because of her heels. "And where are you getting the coke to sell? It's not coming from us, so you are buying from one of our competitors!" She maintained eye contact with him, daring him to back down. She was close enough to smell the cigarettes and gin on his breath, that was not unusual, she knew he drank at work, but it had never gotten bad enough to worry about. What was concerning was his eyes, they were shot with red and dilated to a point where the iris was just a narrow ring of blue.

"You're using," she observed and shook her head. "You're fired. Get out of my club," she broke eye contact and turned away from him in dismissal.

"You can't fire me!" he yelled and grabbed her by the arm and spun her back around.

This time Feliks did intervene. He grabbed Andrei by the shoulder and punched him in the face. Nova stumbled back and caught the edge of her desk to steady herself. Andrei let out a bellow and charged at Feliks swinging wildly, but his reflexes were hampered by the alcohol and cocaine he had in his system. Feliks stepped out of his way and when Andrei tried to compensate, he stumbled and careened out of control and fell on his face. Feliks bent to pick him up by his collar, but Andrei drew a gun from his jacket and fired it at the big man. Once again, the drugs impaired him, and the bullet went wide and punched a hole through the plate glass window.

Feliks knocked the gun out of his grasp and kicked it away, then hefted him up by the lapels. He punched him in the stomach then in the face, but the club manager still had some fight in him. This time he pulled a knife and stabbed Feliks in the shoulder. Feliks let him go as he staggered back with the bloody knife still in his grip. His eyes were wild as he stepped forward to stab Feliks again, but reeled backwards as a bullet hit him in the chest. A second bullet followed, and he stumbled back and fell into the window. The glass that had weakened with the first bullet shattered as Andrei's weight crashed into it. He fell through the glass, hit the railing that was only feet from the window, flipped over it and fell one floor to the balcony below.

Nova lowered the gun and walked through the hole in the window, her shoes crunching on the broken glass, and peered down at Andrei's body lying in a growing pool of maroon below.

"Call the police and take care of this mess," she told Dax and Carmine, who had burst into the office with their guns drawn after the first shot. Fucking useless. She laid the gun on the desk and walked over to her bar. This time she poured herself two fingers of tequila. Looking back across her office and out into the club, she caught two brilliant green eyes from across the balcony. She raised her glass in salute and tossed it back in one swallow.

Loki was considering ditching his two companions and seeking entertainment somewhere else. Braggi and Volstagg were absorbed in one of their typical bragging contests, their audience of young men and women hanging on their every word. Their enrapturement might or might not have something to do with the copious amount of alcohol the two Asgardians were buying for those gathered around their table, or maybe it was their boisterous personalities that drew them, either way, Loki was tired of the entire bunch of them. He was once again detangling himself from a female determined to sit in his lap when a light over the dance floor exploded in a shower of sparks.

He stood up and unceremoniously dumped her onto the floor at his feet.

"What the hell?" she spat, glaring up at him, but his eyes were no longer on her. Instead, he was focused on the small hole that was now in the wall of glass and the growing web of cracks around it. He stepped around the woman and to the rail for a better view, only to hear the distinct sound of two gunshots followed by the crash of a body falling through the glass. He watched as the man in the blue suit flipped over the rail backwards and fell to the balcony below. The partiers on that balcony screamed and scattered, running for the stairs in a panic, but the rest of the club hardly took note of the violence, the music drowning out most other sounds.

Loki looked back up to see a slim woman in a grey suit walk up to the rail and look down at the body with cool detachment, a handgun casually held at her side. She said something to the two men by the door and stepped back through the broken glass. He watched her with growing interest as she walked to the bar in the back of the room and poured a drink. She looked up and met his gaze with her icy blue eyes before she raised her glass to him and downed the drink. He gave her a wicked grin and she returned it with a wry twist of her red lips. His night had gotten infinitely more interesting.


	2. Chapter 2: Not a Drop of Water to Be Had

Thanks to everyone that has visited this story so far! I hope you guys are enjoying reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

I have gone back and tweaked this chapter 4 times now, so I'm going to just post it to remove any further temptation I might have to make more changes. This is the first real Loki/Nova interaction and I wanted it to set the stage for how their relationship was going to develop. This chapter is a bit shorter than normal, but the chapter break worked best this way.

As a side note, I never listen to music while I am writing because I am easily distracted by songs that I like. But there are songs that I hear that make me think about my stories. This story is inspired by two in particular: Lover by Taylor Swift and In the Air Tonight by Kelly Sweet. I love, love, love remakes of 80's and 90's songs and this one by Kelly Sweet is currently one of my favorites! Here's the YouTube link if anyone wants to check it out: watch?v=jTii7i-195E

Chapter 2: Not a Drop of Water to be Had

It took almost three hours before the police and emergency personnel cleared out of the club. Dax and Carmine had immediately shut the club down for the night. The people on the balcony across and below were detained for statements, and Vanya had provided them with the recording of the incident, heavily edited to remove sound and the previous meeting. The police, normally differential to her because of her connections, had treated her with decidedly less courtesy, becoming almost antagonistic on occasion. One had even threatened to cuff her and take her down to the precinct to be booked. A call to their superintendent, who was on her payroll, put a stop to that nonsense and helped hurry the process along. By the time they left, the cops were apologizing to her for the intrusion.

During those three hours, the man with the green eyes watched her every move, even when everyone on the balconies were ushered to the main floor of the club. His look was intense and made her skin prickle, but not in a bad way. He looked familiar and it nagged at her as the hours wore on.

Once the police left, the club employees herded the rest of the partiers out of the club, including the green-eyed man. Karl, the assistant manager, called in a cleaning crew and assured her the club would be ready to reopen the next night, no doubt trying to impress her and influence her decision on who to name as the next manager. She had Carmine accompany Feliks to the hospital, and Dax called in another one of her bodyguards to replace him for the night. Even though it was barely 2am, Nova was tired and decided to call it a night. The last few hours had been taxing on her. Dax called for her car and escorted her out the back entrance of the club. She climbed wearily into the big SUV, looking forward to a long soak in her bathtub and bed.

As the SUV pulled out of the alley, she saw a familiar face in front of the club. He was standing by himself with his hands clasped behind his back, like he had been waiting on her to emerge.

"Stop the car, Alex," she said to her bodyguard that was driving. They rolled to a stop in front of him and she rolled down the window. "Waiting on someone?" she asked.

He smirked and boldly met her eyes. "You."

Nova chuckled and rolled her window back up. "Let's go home, boys."

She looked back as the SUV pulled out into traffic. He was still standing there, watching her and smiling.

Her father had maintained a large estate in a gated community. It was a status symbol to him and his generation; a way to boast to his peers. The extravagant house was also the domain of his wife, her stepmother. Amelia had never treated her badly and had raised her as if she was her own daughter, so she maintained the estate for her up until her death two years ago. She still owned the estate, but it was managed by a couple of caretakers and she seldom ventured through its gates. She used it to house visiting dignitaries from Russia and her suppliers, but she refused to live there. It was her father's home still, not hers.

She resided a penthouse that took up the top two floors of a high-rise in downtown L. A., which was much more convenient to all her businesses, including her club. Walking in, she dismissed her bodyguards for the night. She didn't bother to turn on any lights as she made her way through her home, she just allowed the darkness to wrap itself around her like a comforting blanket.

In the heart of the penthouse was a suite of rooms that were her most private of private. It was almost an apartment within an apartment, complete with a sitting room, bedroom, office and private bath. There was one door into the space, a heavily fortified metal door with both electronic locks and deadbolts. The walls around the suite were double reinforced, effectively turning the suite into a large panic room. Inside, there were no surveillance cameras and her security people were not allowed in unless she activated one of the dozen or so panic buttons spread throughout the space.

Once in her suite of private rooms with the door shut behind her, she allowed her calm facade to drop. She allowed the shaking to flow through her body, starting at the hands and spreading down to her legs. She dropped to her knees and pressed her face into the soft carpet, her hands fisted to either side. But this was not shock, not fear. No, it was something more poisonous. It was anger. Pure, white-hot, blinding anger. She screamed her fury into the plush carpet and pounded the floor with her fists, tears running down her face.

She had trusted Andrei. He had been by her side for the last four years as they had created her club together. She had even considered taking their friendship farther in the past year and had started to make a few changes within her organization that would facilitate his change of status. He had a good head for business, and they got along well. He would make a good companion and since he wasn't in any of her shadier businesses, it wouldn't ruffle any feathers among her lieutenants. To have him betray her like that, and them try to harm her, it burned like a hot knife in her gut. It had taken all her control not to turn that heat on her bodyguards. They had failed her. She should not have been put into a position where she had to kill someone to protect herself. That is what she paid them to do. She wanted to turn the gun on them and shoot them too. But that was just the rage trying to bubble to the surface.

This rage had been her companion for her entire life. Her father had battled it, as had her brother. It had cost her father his first marriage and nearly his second. Only his last wife, her stepmother had been able to withstand it and go toe to toe with it on occasion. She had spent her life learning to master that rage, to control it, and only release it when she was alone. Her father had served as both a mentor, teaching her techniques for control and de-escalation, and as an example of the consequences of being out of control. Ironically, everyone assumed that her secured suite was to protect her from her enemies, when in reality, it was to protect her from herself.

Eventually, the rage subsided and her breathing calmed. She rose a bit unsteadily to her feet; she was always a bit lightheaded and shaky after a fit of that magnitude and it took a while for her usually calmness to settle back into place. She kicked off her shoes and undressed in her dressing room and walked out to her rooms naked to her private swimming pool. It was a warm evening and the water was cool on her heated skin as she waded into it. She swam a few laps and then floated to the infinity edge to look out over the city spread below her, allowing the peace of the night to soak into her body.

"Nice view," said a dry voice behind her.

She turned and faced her green-eyed stalker. He wasn't looking at the city beyond the edge of the pool, instead he was intensely focused on her. Somehow, she wasn't surprised that he was here.

"How did you get past security?" she asked him, languidly treading water.

"It's not hard when you are a god," he said, then disappeared only to reappear on the other side of the pool. His attire had changed to a deep green and black leather tunic and trousers with elaborate gold trim.

Ah, that's why he looked familiar. The clothing had thrown her off. She laughed softly.

"You're Loki," she stated matter-of-factly. "And you're not really a god. Just a being from another dimension with magic." And she turned her back on him to return to the view of the city.

"What makes a god?" he countered. She could hear his measured steps along the edge of the pool. "Humans once worshipped me as a god. I think that qualifies."

"They don't worship you anymore," she retorted, not taking her eyes off the view of the city, "ergo, you are not a god. At least not anymore. In fact, many consider you a criminal now."

The water that had buoyed her dropped away beneath her body and she fell unceremoniously to the now dry bottom of her pool. The anger that she rode out earlier half-heartedly attempted to resurface, but she tapped it down. Surprisingly, it subsided with little effort.

She stood and turned a baleful look at her tormentor, "that was mature."

He shrugged and gave her a mischievous smile, "I don't like being ignored."

"Apparently," she agreed as she walked across her empty pool to the steps.

Loki held out his hand to assist her and she pointed ignored it which made his smile even wider. She made no effort to cover her nudity, instead she boldly stepped close to him, invading his personal space. She wasn't short, but he was tall enough that her eyes were even with his mouth. She reached out and trailed a perfectly manicured fingernail down the black leather edging of the front of his tunic and looked up at him coyly.

"Surely you didn't expect me to just bend over and beg you to take me?" she purred.

Loki's smile broadened, "Where would be the fun in that?"

"Indeed," Nova dropped her hand and her teasing gaze, turning to walk away from him.

He grabbed her wrist in an iron grip to halt her, applying enough pressure to make it uncomfortable, but not to bruise.

"I could make you," his smile had vanished, and his eyes grew cold.

Nova threw his words back in his face with a smirk of her own, "Where would be the fun in that?" The pulled her wrist from his grasp. Surprisingly, he allowed it.

"Good night," Nova said as she walked across the patio to the door, head held high with a dignity that belied the fact that she was stark naked. She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head, but she would not give him the satisfaction of turning around. She reached the door as two of her security guards came rushing through it, guns drawn.

"What the hell do I pay you guys for?" she snapped, pushing past them and slamming the door behind her, making the glass rattle alarmingly.

Loki watched her through the glass as she disappeared into the penthouse. She was impressive for a human even if she was too thin. Her bright blue eyes had almost sparkled with her irritation, but she had remained calm until her worthless security had arrived. It was the only time he had seen a crack in her cool demeanor that night.

He had even nudged two of the policemen with his magic to press her and waited for her reaction. Nothing fazed her even though he could sense her anger under the surface. When she snubbed him in front of the club, he decided to follow her.

One of the guards moved to grab him, and he considered his options. He could get rid of these humans and continue his pursuit of the woman, but that might bring him some unwanted attention, not something he desired. Instead he could leave now and drag out this game longer. Naturally, the second option appealed to him.

The guards were left gaping when their target simply vanished.

Nova let the breath out that she had unconsciously been holding once the door sealed and locked behind her. Her father had been the only person that every unnerved her with just a look. She could feel his judgement like a palpable touch on her soul. Weighing her and finding her wanting whenever her anger got the best of her, when she lashed out at others, when tears of frustration spilled from her eyes. His look had made her feel small and worthless.

Loki's look had unnerved her, but not in the same way. He had taunted her, trying to get a reaction. His look had made her feel like she was teetering on the edge of control, jittery, but alive and powerful. His look invited her to do her worst and embrace that power. But that wasn't what unnerved her and made her run away from him. What unnerved her was that she wanted it. She wanted to give up her iron control and unleash the beast that lurked in her heart.

A ridiculous urge, she chided herself, turning on her shower and stepping into it.

Later, laying under the cool sheets of her bed, Nova's thoughts kept drifting back to Loki. What was he up to? She knew the god of mischief had to be up to something and he had selected her as his target, but what was his game? Was he planning to disrupt her business? She didn't think so, he had alternatively tried to take over the world, then defended it against Thanos. She couldn't fathom that he would even care about her organization. So, what then? Maybe she was just a momentary diversion, before he moved on.

As she drifted off to sleep, her dreams were filled with bright green eyes and a wicked grin.


	3. Chapter 3: Politically Correct

Chapter 3: Politically Correct

Nova had a lunch meeting the next day with the president of the city council, Elaine McNamara. The council woman was up for reelection and she was sure to press Nova for her support in her campaign, probably in the form of a substantial donation. Her father had taught her that she would have to deal with politicians and law enforcement on a regular basis as a necessary evil, but she didn't share his view. Manipulating people was her favorite part of her business. She loved to engage in the quid pro quo of trading favors with politicians; trying to make the best deal and get the biggest bang for her buck while making the other party feel like they are the one that came out on top. She reveled in pulling in favors and forcing people to do things they wouldn't normally do. Even taking advantage of those individuals that were simply greedy gave her a rush of power.

She took the usual care with her grooming and clothing: a designer cobalt blue silk blouse with an asymmetrical ruffle and a stiff collar that framed her face paired with a pencil thin black skirt with her hair in a sleek rolled bun high on her head. Expensive, but understated jewelry completed the look she was going for: self-confidence and subtle power.

At the restaurant, she had her driver go around the block twice before letting her and her bodyguard out in front. There was an art to being late for meetings. She wanted to be just late enough to let the councilwoman know she was the one in charge but not so late as to be rude and disrespectful. It was all a mind game; a way to put her opponent slightly off balance. Five to ten minutes was usually enough to accomplish her goal.

The councilwoman rose to greet her as she approached the table. She was a decade older than Nova, with just the beginnings of fine lines in the corners of her eyes and around her mouth. She had also dressed to project power and confidence and looked the part of a successful politician in her beige pantsuit with her dark blond hair pulled back in a chignon.

"Ms. Stepanov, a pleasure to finally meet you," she greeted with a brisk handshake and a bright smile.

Nova smiled a little less brightly back and returned the shake. "Thank you for meeting me, Mrs. McNamara."

"Please, call me Elaine." There was that too bright smile again.

Nova didn't respond in kind; she merely nodded her head in acknowledgment. The councilwoman's smile dimmed a bit, but she didn't say anything.

The two women chatted about the usual mundane matters while the server filled their water glasses and gave them menus. Nova perused the menu with annoyance. She had been to this restaurant twice before and wasn't impressed with its pretentious menu. Really? Do people actually order avocado toast for lunch? And she was hungry since she skipped breakfast. With a resigned sigh, she ordered the watercress soup and cucumber sandwiches. The councilwoman ordered the avocado toast.

With the pleasantries and orders out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

"How is your campaign going, Elaine?"

The councilwoman gave her another bright smile, "It's a bit early, but the polls are encouraging."

"Really?" Nova responded, taking a drink of her water. "I just read that you were almost 20 points down against Mr. Chavez."

The bright smile faded, and she frowned slightly, "I wouldn't believe everything you read. Besides," she waved her hand in the air as if shooing away an annoying insect, "bright new faces always trend higher at the beginning of a campaign. They get the voters excited because who doesn't love something or someone new. But as the campaign wears on, the voters will soon realize who has their best interest in mind and the numbers will change."

"Well, at least that's what you hope will happen." Nova gave her a level look that said she didn't buy anything the councilwoman just said. Elaine was an upper class, Ivy league educated, white woman, with very moderate political leanings. Chavez came from a poor family, had been educated at a local state college and was calling for change. With the liberal backlash against the results of the last national elections, the city was leaning heavily to the left. If Elaine didn't move left with it, she was going to lose.

"Of course, my campaign could always use more support from influential people like yourself."

Ah, here it comes. "What do you mean?"

"Campaigns are expensive. Especially if I want to get my message out to the maximum number of voters. TV airtime, rallies, travel. All that takes money."

"I'm sure it does," Nova said noncommittally.

"A substantial donation from you would go a long way towards ensuring my victory. Not to mention what your support would do in the community. You have a lot of influence in my district." The council woman leveled a serious look at her.

"True, but Mr. Chavez has strong ties in the district. It might be in my best interest to support his campaign instead."

"That would be a disaster for you."

"Really? How so?" Nova asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

The councilwoman went on about the differences in her and Chavez's political agendas. Nova tuned her out; she didn't give a damn about politics. When it came to her business, liberal or conservative didn't mean anything. The only thing that mattered was figuring out who would play her game. She had her people already feel out Chavez and he was a non-starter. He was too young and idealistic. He came from a neighborhood where drug related crime by gang members was high and had lost people close to him because of it. He hadn't gotten to the point in his life where he would view working with her to be a necessary evil. Hell, he might never get to that point. So that left this smug twat to deal with.

Nova surveyed the dining area. She noted that her bodyguard, Carmine, was busy talking to the hostess instead of doing what she paid him for. That was going to have to be addressed. First, the failure last night, now this distraction. She couldn't let it continue or they would think she was getting soft.

She continued to look around as the councilwoman droned on, only to have her attention snared by a pair of bright green eyes from across the room. He was dressed impeccably in a black suit with a tie that matched his eyes, and looked like a financier on his lunch break, but there was no mistaking him. The smirk on his face would have given him away if his eyes hadn't. He held her gaze as if daring her to look away. It was hard to maintain the bland look of interest she had assumed, but she was hardly going to back down from a challenge. His smirk grew into a grin as she refused to look away.

The staring contest and the political spiel were mercifully interrupted by the server placing their lunches in front of them. Nova frowned at her meal.

"This is not what I ordered."

The server looked nonplussed. "The chef prepared it specifically for you," she said. "Would you like me to take it back?"

"No, thank you. It will be fine," Nova replied, a bit confused. She hadn't ordered anything special.

The councilwoman looked at the grilled cheeseburger and fries sitting in front of Nova. "I don't think that is on the menu." She looked a bit jealous as she compared the juicy burger to her avocado toast.

Nova glanced back across the room to the obviously amused Loki. Was this his doing? She cocked her head slightly at him and he nodded back. Yep, it was. What was his game? Whatever it was, she was not going to let it throw her off hers. She shrugged and took a bite from the burger. At least she wasn't going to be hungry still after this lunch.

The councilwoman started to continue her political discourse, but Nova cut her off.

"I would love to aid in your reelection, Elaine, but unfortunately, at the present, my import business is experiencing some difficulties and my discretionary cash is too low to consider a political contribution."

"Oh," she replied, taking the proffered bait, "what kind of difficulties?"

"There is an overzealous harbor master that is interfering with the flow of business in and out of the Port. I think he may be out of his depth. Maybe a smaller, less busy port would suit his talents better." Nova replied before taking another bite of the burger. It was delicious. She might thank Loki, if she wasn't wary of his intentions.

"The port authority is not controlled by the city; it is privately operated," the councilwoman blurted.

"Of course, but it is also funded by the city and those funds are controlled by the council. The one you are still president of," Nova pointed out. "And I understand that they have requested additional funding for some infrastructure improvements over the next five years. A total of $1.2 Billion dollars. That leaves a lot of room for negotiation."

The councilwoman looked uncomfortable. "But," she started.

"Of course, I understand if your hands are tied. You might not have the votes on the council you need. I understand Mr. Chavez has several close ties with other council members." The treat wasn't subtle, but it worked.

"You misunderstand my reluctance, Nova," the councilwoman tried again.

"Ms. Stepanov." Nova corrected.

Her lips thinned to almost nonexistence. My, my, thought Nova, you are going to need injections soon if you keep that up.

"Ms. Stepanov, you misunderstood me. These negotiations are going to take several months and might not be finalized until after the election."

"Well, then, I'm afraid there isn't a lot I can do to help your campaign," Nova placed her napkin on the table and started to stand up.

"Wait," Elaine reached out and put her hand on Nova's arm. "I'm sure you are right. I would hate for an inexperienced harbor master to misuse that much money. I'm sure there are better suited candidates for the position."

Nova sat back down and picked her napkin back up. "I might be able to provide you with a list of suitable candidates."

The woman across from her gave her a strained smile, "that is very generous of you."

"You will find that I am very generous," Nova replied.

Thirty minutes later, after finishing her lunch and the desert that she also didn't order, she bid goodbye to the grateful councilwoman and promised to have a check to her campaign headquarters by the end of the day. She looked across the room to the table where Loki had been sitting, but there was a young couple sitting there instead. She looked around and didn't see him anywhere. Maybe he had tired of his games, she thought. But not likely.

It hadn't taken a lot of effort to get the chef to make a cheeseburger and fries for Nova, just a little influence using his magic and the pompous little man was delighted to create the meal from scratch along with a chocolate cake for dessert. He told himself it was just to fuck with the woman, who was meddling in petty human politics, but it may have been to see if she would actually eat it, though, after seeing her naked the night before, he wondered if her thinness was self-inflicted. Humans were obsessed with being thin, after all. Not that she wasn't glorious to look at, even thin. Her breasts were small but pert and tipped with dusky pink nipples, her ass was shapely, and even as thin as she was, she had a well-defined waist-to-hip ratio. Ten more pounds on her frame would soften the harsh lines of her ribs and hip bones that jutted out, at least to his way of thinking.

He had been slightly disappointed at her lack of reaction and the fact that she had quickly identified the source of the changed order. But her enjoyment of the burger had made up for that, and he watched as she finished the entire meal. Maybe he would have something delivered to her in the future. Too bad Asgard was gone, he could have surprised her with some of his favorite meals from the kitchens there.

He listened intently to her conversation with the other woman, at first confused by some of her phrases before realizing she was being deliberately oblique. He wondered briefly what exactly her business was that she needed the politician to intervene. He would have to find out. It wouldn't be too hard to get some of her people to talk, using his magic, of course. The more he knew about her, the better a game he could play at her expense.

He got up and left the restaurant without her noticing and set off towards her club to gather information.


	4. Chapter 4: Party Favors

Chapter 4: Party Favors

Nova's next stop was at the Black Swan, a gentleman's club near downtown that she owned, to meet with Viktor, her lieutenant over the import and distribution of cocaine. Even though it was early afternoon, the club still had a good number of patrons; mostly tourists and businessmen from the nearby financial district on late lunch breaks. The club operated 24/7 to take advantage of multiple demographics, albeit with a smaller group of dancers during daylight hours.

Nova's entrance wasn't unusual, but some of the dancers still paused and acknowledged her as she wove her way through the club towards the offices in the back. She was well known throughout the city for protecting her "girls" and ensuring they were treated fairly by the managers of her clubs. While health insurance wasn't provided, she saw to it that their medical and dental expenses were covered. After all, sick girls didn't earn money, so it was only good business. Anyone caught being excessively rough with any of the girls was quickly made an example of to dissuade others from making the same mistake.

Viktor and his second Ilia were waiting for her in the office. Carmine opened the door and stepped aside to allow her to enter.

"I'm not going to have to shoot someone today, am I?" She quipped as she passed him.

"No, Gospozha. Alex checked everyone for weapons before you arrived." He responded with his thick accent.

Nova didn't reply and he closed the door behind her, leaving her in the lavishly decorated office with her two men. It had been her father's favorite place to do business, and his influence could be seen throughout the room. The desk dominated the space, made from dark mahogany and ornamented with intricate details and inlays. The wall behind it was covered with matching mahogany bookcases and paneling with a variety of vases, small sculptures, books, and framed photos. The two chairs positioned in front of the desk were large and covered with soft black leather with a mahogany table between them. The carpet on the floor was a busy red and gold chevron pattern and was the only color in the room. Everything was designed to convey power and masculinity and she hated it, but, like the estate, could not bring herself to change it. Instead, she made the office over the Firebird hers and left this one to Viktor.

Viktor and Ilia stood and came forward to greet her as she entered the room.

"Gospozha! We don't see you down her often enough! Welcome!" Viktor declared effusively, taking her hand and kissing it.

Ilia stepped up beside him and repeated the gesture. "Welcome, Gospozha," he repeated in a slightly less enthusiastic tone.

Stepping aside, Viktor indicated the chair behind the desk, "Please, sit. Can I get you a drink?"

She strode around the desk and took the proffered chair, "Do you still have Medovukha?"

He nodded to Ilia, who hustled out of the room to relay her request to the bartender.

Nova leaned back in the soft leather, crossed her legs and got straight to the point. She had other business to take care of and didn't want to spend any more time here than necessary. "You said you had some distressing news?"

"Unfortunately, yes." He hesitated before continuing.

"Spit it out, Viktor. Bad news doesn't get better with time." She waved her hand for him to continue.

"Two of our distributors are causing trouble."

"Which ones?" Nova already knew there was trouble brewing on the streets from her contacts within the police force, but she was interested to hear if Viktor had anything new to add.

"The Norteños and the B-Streets are on the verge of an all-out gang war," he spat out. "If that happens it will affect all of our business south of downtown all the way to the airport."

Nothing new there. "Do we know the cause?"

"Some B-Street lieutenant stuck his dick into one of the Norteños sisters and knocked her up. Now he's not manning up and taking responsibility."

"And they are willing to start a gang war over this?"

"It was the sister of one of their Jefes, and she is only sixteen."

"Fucking mudak," she shook her head in disgust. This was going to be a disaster if something wasn't done quickly to defuse the situation.

Ilia came back into the room at that moment and motioned to Viktor to join him outside. When Viktor made to excuse himself, Nova stopped him.

"Surely it isn't something you can't share with me?" she asked in a deceptively mild voice.

Viktor and Ilia looked at each other and then Ilia swallow and turned towards her. "Erik was attacked and stabbed while making a delivery to the Norteños. His body was just found dumped outside of the warehouse."

"And the package he was delivering?" Nova prompted.

"Gone," Ilia didn't meet her eyes.

Nova made an impatient sound. "How much?"

Viktor answered her question, "Five hundred."

She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Half a million dollars' worth of product gone. Fuck!" She took a deep breath to quell her rising anger. She sat up abruptly, but whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a knock at the office door. She nodded to Viktor and he let in the server with her drink. The woman hurried in and set the glass on the desk in front of Nova and then scurried from the room, no doubt sensing the tension.

Nova picked up the drink and rose from the chair, walking around to the front of the desk and leaning back on its polished edge. She took a drink of the sweet drink and savored its sour aftertaste while she thought. Viktor watched her intently and Ilia nervously picked at his fingernails.

"First," she waved her glass at Viktor, "you are going to find out took our coke."

"Of course!"

"I want either the product back or cash. Either will work. But whoever did this will pay for what they did. We cannot let something like this pass without consequences."

"I will go talk to Antonio immediately and find out what he knows. Not having that coke will hurt the Norteños as much as us," he assured her.

"That brings me to my second point," she took another drink. "I want you to broker a meeting between Antonio and the B-Street leaders and get this feud settled. This week. Understand? We do not need this!"

"Yes, Gospozha!" the two men said almost in unison. She was sure it would be done; Viktor was quite capable as was Ilia. Both had been with the family since her father's days.

She finished her drink and set the glass down, "keep me informed."

"Yes, Gospozha," Viktor nodded.

She walked to the door and waited for Ilia to open it for her. On her way back through the club, she spotted one of the dancers smiling at her and paused. "Have Skye and Nikolay brought to my penthouse tonight," she told Carmine.

"Yes, Gospozha," he replied and went to talk to the manager of the club. Alex escorted her the rest of the way to the SUV, where she ordered her driver to take her home. She had a party to get ready for.

At the Firebird, Loki had assumed the identity of Andy, one of stock boys, and was chatting up one of the crew that was cleaning up the mess from the night before. The blood had already been mopped up, and a glass repairman was taking measurements for a replacement pane. The cleaning crew was one regularly used by Nova and her business and they had a lot of useful tidbits. Loki turned on the charm and mixed in a bit of magic and the man he was talking to couldn't seem to tell him enough.

He found out that Nova was the head of a Russian crime family that covered most of Los Angeles and the surrounding area and that she had taken over the family business after the death of her father. She had two older brothers, but one died in a boating accident when he was a teenager and the other was stabbed while doing six months for aggravated assault. After the death of his second son, Ivan Stepanov started grooming his fourteen-year-old daughter to take over the business. From every indication, she had been a natural. She had expanded the family business and cemented ties with other organizations along the west coast, South America, and Asia; and strengthened ties with other Russian organizations in Europe. Her business dealings included import and distribution of heroin and cocaine, illegal weapons sales, smuggling on the black market, and prostitution. She also had several legal businesses including three night clubs, several gentleman's clubs, a construction business, and owned an entire office high rise in downtown. She also had her fingers in a lot of other businesses as a silent partner. She was arguably one of the most powerful people on the west coast.

From the bartenders and servers that began to trickle in during the late afternoon, he found out more personal details. Where Ivan Stepanov had been feared because of his unpredictable temper, Nova was respected by her employees. She put an end to the human sex trafficking that the business had a hand in as well as underage prostitution. She protected her female employees from abuse and helped them improve themselves when they showed the inclination. Even though she had never been, she had sent several to local universities and vocational schools. She was a heavy contributor to charities that benefited the poor and underprivileged in the city and surrounding areas.

Loki also found out that she had been engaged once, but her fiancé had been caught by her in bed with a local news anchor, so she had broken it off.

He was disappointed to learn that she would not be at the club that night because the mayor's daughter was celebrating her 15th birthday, something called a Quinceañera. He was able to learn the location of the party, though.

Nova glided across the floor towards the mayor and his beaming daughter standing together on the raised dais at the end of the reception hall.

"Julian! This beautiful young woman cannot be your little girl!" she laughed gaily, and she grasped his hands and kissed him on the cheek, being careful not to leave a smear of her lipstick. "She was only this tall," she held her hand open at the height of her hips, "when I saw her last."

"Nova Stepanov, my dear, this is my daughter Julianna," the proud father introduced the girl. Nova hugged her and kissed her on both cheeks, which was quite the feat with all the ridiculous billowing ruffles of peach tulle that flowed out from the girl's tiny waist to a good four feet radius around her.

"Happy Quinceañera, Julianna! You look beautiful." Nova held out a heavy envelope, "This is for you."

"Thank you, Ms. Stepanov," the girl replied, tearing open the envelope and pulling out the contents. "Ooh! A week in Paris for five! Thank you, thank you!" She cried, hugging Nova and nearly knocking her down with her dress.

"Nova, you didn't have to buy such an extravagant gift! You will spoil her!" the mayor protested.

"Nonsense!" she declared, waving away his protest. "If you can't spoil the daughter of your friend on her 15th birthday celebration, when can you?"

The mayor frowned slightly at her calling him her 'friend', "I can't argue with that logic."

"Of course not," Nora laughed with a slight warning in her eyes. "Julianna, I'll allow you to return to your celebration. Congratulations, again."

"Thank you," the girl replied, oblivious to the sudden tension between her father and Nova.

"I will see you later this week," Nova said quietly to the mayor as she moved away.

Loki leaned against the large column and watched the crowd around him. The women were dressed in a dazzling array of gowns and jewelry like preening birds of paradise, while the men were almost uniformly dressed in black suits and tuxedos. He had been at the party for almost an hour and had been entertaining himself by causing small incidents: making a teenage boy on the dance floor step on the hem of a girl's trailing skirt and nearly tearing it off of her body, tripping a slightly tipsy older man so that he fell and caught himself on the copious bust of one of the stuffy matrons, and causing a tiff between two teenage girls over a boy that ended with them pulling each other's hair and screeching.

He was scanning the area looking for Nova, when he saw the gold Lexus sitting off to the side of the hall on a raised platform, obviously a present for the guest of honor. Less than twenty feet away was a table ladened with a heavily decorated pink cake of preposterous dimensions. Now that was too much to resist. With a small flick of his magic, the transmission of the car changed from park to neutral and another magical nudge started it rolling backwards, slowly at first, but picking up speed as it rolled down the short ramp. One of the matrons noticed the impending disaster first and sounded the alarm. Several of the wait staff nearby froze and watched as the car continued its backwards roll towards the cake. The disturbance caught the attention of one of the event managers who shoved his way through the crowd to reach the car. More of the matrons and now the surrounding guests where shouting and running about. Nobody thought to just step behind the car and use their own body to stop it, even though it was only rolling as fast as a person could walk. The manager finally reached the car and jumped inside it to step on the breaks and bring it to a halt just inched from the table with the cake. Loki briefly thought about intervening just to see the chaos that would ensue when the cake was destroyed, but he caught sight of a familiar figure moving through the crowd on the other end of the hall. With a sigh of disappointment, he abandoned his game.

Nova was a striking figure moving through the crowd. Her velvet gown was the color of dark caramel with a high neckline that wrapped around her slender neck like a collar and hugged her slim figure, baring her delicate shoulders and arms. As always, her hair was pulled back, but was looser and softer than he had seen it before with a few free curls framing her face. He watched her stop as people greeted her and converse with them briefly before moving on to the next person waiting for her attention. He grew impatient waiting for her to reach him, realizing that at least another dozen people stood between them, so he pushed off the column and moved to intercept her.

He waited for her to finish speaking to an elderly gentleman about his great-grandchildren, then stepped quickly in front of the next man waiting.

"Good evening, Nova." He greeted her. In her heels, she was nearly eye-level with him. "You look lovely, though I liked what you were wearing last night much better," he smiled.

She narrowed her eyes and replied, "I didn't realize you were a friend of the mayor. Or maybe his daughter? She seems to be more your age."

He laughed.

"I'm glad I entertain you, but I have other matters I have to attend to. If you will excuse me?" She turned her attention to the man standing slightly behind him, but he grabbed her by the waist.

"Dance with me," he demanded.

"No," she shot back.

"Dance with me," he tried cajoling her.

She shook her head, "I don't have time."

He pulled her close and murmured in her ear, "Dance with me or I will drop that gaudy chandelier on the dance floor. Wonder how many of those people can get out of the way before it hits?"

She looked at him intently, trying to determine if he would follow through with his threat. After a long moment, she made her decision and bit out, "fine."

Loki lead her to the dance floor in the middle of the area. There was a popular dance hit playing and most of the people on the floor were teenagers, jumping around, gyrating, and grinding their bodies together distastefully. He stopped at the edge of the floor, and Nova looked at him with an amused expression. He rolled his eyes and used his magic to change the music to something less excruciating to his ears and better for dancing. The song that was playing suddenly stopped to the groans and boos of the teens around them and the first notes of a slower song began. Most of the crowd left the floor, and Loki turned Nova in his arms. The dress she was wearing didn't have a back, so his hand met her warm, soft skin low on her back. She started at his touch.

"Your hand is cold," she explained, following his lead and moving with the music.

He leaned into her and pressed the side of his face to hers. Her hair smelled like honey and almonds and her skin gave off the scent of vanilla and warm spices. "A lot more than my hand is cold. You could warm it up for me," he breathed in her ear suggestively.

"I know where there's a big furnace. You would fit nicely into it," she quipped.

He chuckled and brushed his lips along the edge of her ear. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Well, it's exactly what I am thinking right now." She subtly turned her body slightly to move away from his lips.

He abruptly changed the subject, "Did you enjoy the burger?"

Nova's lips twisted into a slight smile, "I thought that was your doing."

"And?"

"It was passable. It needed more salt, but it was better than anything else on that menu," she conceded.

They move together with the music for a few seconds, not talking. Then Nova sighed and asked, "What do you want?"

"Fame, fortune, world domination. You know, the usual things that gods desire."

"No, I mean, what do you want from me?" She clarified.

"Why do you think I want something from you?" He leaned away a bit to look her in the eye.

"You wouldn't be stalking me like this if you didn't," she retorted, shaking her head slightly.

Loki shrugged his shoulders, "To be honest, I haven't decided yet. I was bored and you just caught my attention," he admitted just to see her reaction.

She stiffened in his arms, "So I'm just something to amuse yourself with?"

"Basically."

She stopped and stepped out of his arms. "I'm done." She stopped a few feet away from him before turning back and meeting his eyes with her cold blue ones. "I would watch who I choose to fuck with, if I were you. You might be biting off more than you can handle." Then she turned away and left.

"Oh, but that is what makes it a challenge," he mused to himself as he allowed her to walk away.

Nearby, the mayor's assistant watched them intently. He had been watching Loki all evening as he prowled the party. He was sure that the chaos that followed him around the room was his doing. He noted Loki's reaction when he spotted the woman he was obviously waiting for and their interaction on the dance floor. He noted with interest the intensity of the Asgardian's stare at her retreating figure.

He nodded at a nearby server to continue watching Loki and followed the woman from the building. Outside, she was met by a large man who opened the door of a vehicle for her and helped her in, then getting in himself. As the vehicle drove by, he snapped a quick picture of its license plate. Then he returned to the party to continue his surveillance of Loki.


	5. Chapter 5: Two's Company Three's a Party

**I want to thank those of you that are following this story and marked it as favorite. You guys are the reason I keep posting!**

**Warning! Lemons ahead! Beware!**

**This chapter gives a little more insight into Nova's character, but it can be skipped if you don't care for smut.**

**Please give me some reviews to let me know how I am doing!**

Chapter 5: Two is Company, But Three is a Party

Slightly shaken by Loki's admission and touch, Nova had her driver take her home. She was going to have an early night and start fresh in the morning. Maybe she would come up with a plan for dealing with the troublesome god. Arriving home, she remembered, to her dismay, that she had arranged for some company for the evening. One of the dancers from the Black Swan, Skye, was sprawled in a lounge chair by her pool, her voluptuous figure barely covered by her bikini. Niki, the bartender, was resting his arms on the edge of the pool looking out over the city. Oh, well, she thought to herself, she could still use the distraction, and went into her rooms to change out of her dress.

Emerging a few minutes later in a bikini, she joined them at the pool. She swam a bit and had a drink that Niki made for her. She listened as the two of them told her amusing stories about the past week at the club. She laughed about an elderly tourist that had apparently never been in a strip club before and had gotten so excited that he had ejaculated in his pants. Instead of being embarrassed about it, he was happy and practically announced it to everyone around him, claiming that he hadn't had a decent hard on for over a decade!

As the light faded and the air cooled, the three of them migrated inside and into Nova's suite. When the door locked behind them, Skye took Nova by the hand and led the way into her bathroom where Niki was turning on the water in her shower. They peeled off their suits and stepped into the large open shower. There was no door, just a low threshold to step over. Two rain shower heads sprayed water gently down on them as Skye poured some shampoo into her hand and stood behind Nova to massage it into her scalp while Niki squirted some of her liquid bath gel onto a soft cloth and began to run it over her shoulders and arms. Nova let her body relax under their ministrations and allowed the stress of the day to flow out of her.

The shower was quiet other than the sound of the running water. That was one of the reasons she liked these two: they knew when to just be quiet and let her enjoy their attention. They also worked well together and the three of them had a certain calm chemistry that worked to soothe her nerves and blunt her rage when necessary. The juxtaposition of their differences appealed to her senses as well. Skye was short and voluptuous, with big blue eyes and pale blond hair; soft in every aspect. Niki wasn't tall, he was about the same height as Nova, but he worked out and was broad and muscular. That, along with his dark hair and eyes and deeply tanned skin, made him the opposite of Skye.

Nova sighed and leaned into his touch as he ran the cloth over her breasts, massaging them slowly and teasing her nipples lightly with his thumbs. She pouted a bit when he ceased his attention to them and continued lower, circling the cloth over her flat stomach and waist. He paused his ministrations while Skye helped her rinse the shampoo out of her hair, then resumed when she began massaging in the conditioner.

He dropped to his knees in front of Nova as he moved to her legs, running the cloth down the outsides of her thighs and calves, then slowly up the insides of her legs. Nova felt Skye's hands skirt her ribs and reach around to cup her breasts and her mouth somehow cool against the side of her neck. She closed her eyes to the sensations and let them do as they pleased.

Niki dropped the cloth and, grasping her left leg, lifted it and hooked it over his shoulder, then leaned forward and kissed the sensitive flesh on the inside of her thigh just under their juncture. He turned his head and kissed the opposite thigh in the same place. Nova released the breath she had been holding when Skye's fingers rolled her puckered nipples between them. At that moment, Niki ran his tongue up her slit, lingering on the little bundle of nerves at the top. Nova's legs almost gave under her and she fisted her fingers in his hair to steady herself. For several minutes the three remained locked in that position; Skye softly tormenting her breasts and nipples while kissing her neck and shoulders and Niki between her legs licking and sucking at the wet folds of flesh.

Nova felt the pressure building and her legs trembled from her need. She tipped her head to the side to give Skye better access and pressed herself into Niki's mouth. When he reached a hand up to circle her clit while his tongue pushed deep into her warmth, she was sent over the edge, her breath catching and her back arching.

Skye held her upright as she recovered, and Niki shut off the water and grabbed them towels. After they dried off, they moved to the bedroom and the large bed to continue what they had started.

Nova only had one rule for these encounters, one that Skye and Niki never had a problem with and never pushed: absolutely no strings or commitments. Commitment was a problem for her. She wasn't a virgin, of course. She had lost that years ago in the back of her boyfriend's car not long after her father started grooming her to take over the business. She had been with a couple other guys after that, but those relationships were life lessons for her. The guys acted like they owned her afterwards, like she was somehow less because of it. They had expected her to do what they told her to do like their other girlfriends had, but she wasn't like other girlfriends. They couldn't seem to understand the difference.

Her stepmother had tried to explain it to her, but it was her father that finally helped her get it. He had overheard her arguing over the phone with her last boyfriend and had laid out the cold, hard facts to her.

"In our world, every interaction involves two types of people: those that fuck and those that get fucked," he spelled it out crudely and bluntly. "If you are not the one doing the fucking, then you are the one that is getting fucked. If you let someone fuck you, then they are never going to accept that you are in charge, no matter how hard you try. Being a woman is going to be hard enough for you. I'm doing everything in my power to make sure you have what it takes, but you are going to have to make some hard decisions. This is one of them."

After that, she never had another serious boyfriend. Her bedroom was off limits for anyone that might see it as a way to move up in the organization. Her physical needs had driven her towards using women to get what she needed, but that was also problematic. Being with women exclusively would get her labeled as a lesbian, and her father was equally quick to point out that trap. So, she had begun to pick out female strippers and servers and non-dominant men at the very bottom of the hierarchy of the organization: stock boys, bartenders, servers and the like.

She liked pairs the best. They made for some pretty amazing sex she thought as she straddled Niki's face while Skye rode his cock and they kissed and stroked each other. Later Niki fucked Skye from behind while she worked magic with her tongue and lips on Nova's pussy.

Well after midnight, once Skye and Niki had fallen into an exhausted slumber beside her, Nova got silently out of bed, put on a silk robe, and went outside to sit by the edge of the pool. She was tired but not enough to go to sleep quite yet, so she dangled her feet in the water and sipped on the wine she had poured. Even after a night of sex, she still couldn't shake the feeling of being alone. It wore on her and dulled the afterglow of sex, tarnishing it into something far too temporal and fleeting. She yearned for something more, but couldn't articulate the need, much less formulate a plan to alleviate it. She huffed her frustration into the night air and refilled her wineglass.

She was unaware that a dark set of eyes watched her from the shadows.


	6. Chapter 6: A Wretched Hive of Scum

Chapter 6: A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

Skye and Niki were gone the next morning when Nova woke up. They usually left in the early hours of the morning before dawn. She preferred it that way; as much as she had enjoyed their activities the night before, she didn't feel like cuddling and making small talk with them over breakfast.

After a long shower and a light breakfast, she dressed in a conservative Channel dress for Sunday morning mass. Going to mass every week was both out of habit and for appearances. Her family had attended mass every week, including her father, with only two exceptions that she could remember: the week her mother passed away and the week her father had a heart attack and was laid up in the hospital. She kept that tradition alive, and many of her employees joined her on a regular basis, including her two lieutenants.

This morning, both Viktor and Barak and their families were waiting for her in the parking lot across the street from the cathedral. Viktor indicated he needed to speak to her, so she sent everyone into the cathedral ahead of them, except for Dax. He had been acting a bit odd all morning. Perhaps, she mused, he was still feeling guilty for failing to properly protect her at the club. She made a mental note to talk to him later.

"The meet between the _Norteños_ and the B-Streeters is set for tomorrow afternoon," he told her.

"It needed to be soon, good," she nodded with approval. "Do you have a lead on who took our product?"

"Yes, but it is pretty weak, and Ilia is following up on it. I will let you know if it pans out. We should hear something by tonight."

"Very well. We need to put an end to this quickly before anyone starts to think we have gotten weak."

Yes, _Gospozha_," Viktor nodded and followed her inside for mass.

After mass, she had Dex drive her to another one of her clubs downtown, this one was called Bad Wolf. Walking through this bar was a different experience from walking through the Firebird. Whereas the Firebird was open and airy, Bad Wolf was a series of smaller bars connected together with lower ceilings and had a much darker ambience. It was like walking through a maze. This time of day on a Sunday, the bar was closed, so it was even darker than normal, lending it an almost claustrophobic atmosphere. Nova and her two bodyguards wove their way through the darkness to the elevator in the back.

Two floors up, the offices were a stark contrast from the rest of the club, appearing bigger on the inside because Nova had commissioned renovations two years ago and had several walls knocked down between adjoining rooms, creating one large space. Whomever decorated the office after the renovation had went heavy handed with a vaguely British inspired design. If one could forget they were in the middle of a building in downtown L. A., the office space felt like a hunting lodge in the English countryside.

Nova sank into the soft cushions of the cream-colored sofa and kicked off her heels. She was expecting her accountant shortly to go over the books for the last month. Business had been good over the last year, but the last two months had seen some setbacks. They had set out a plan to get everything back in the black and she was eager to see if it had worked. If not, she might have to make some very unpopular choices.

Her phone rang, the caller ID was one of her contacts from within the local precinct.

"What is it, Mike?" she asked. Officer Michael Nash never called her, she always called him when she needed something, so this was concerning.

"Ms. Stepanov, I thought you might like to know that a body has been recovered near one of your clubs. It is one of your employees, Angel Rodriquez," the officer informed her.

Nova checked her memory, "One of the bartenders at the Firebird."

"Yes, ma'am. They found his body early this morning. The coroner has it right now and is doing the autopsy."

"Do they suspect foul play?"

"Yes, ma'am, it was definitely not a natural death," the officer lowered his voice to avoid anyone nearby overhearing.

"What do you mean?" Nova stood up and walked to the desk.

"His eyes and brain are missing."

"What?"

"I said, his...,"

"No, I heard you," she stopped him from repeating himself. "That's unusual."

"That's all I know right now. I will call you if I get anything else." She could tell he was trying to get off the phone quickly.

"Very well. I will contact you tonight if I don't hear from you before then."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied as she ended the call.

She tapped the face of her phone for a couple of seconds, thinking, then dialed Karl. She had made him the interim manager at the Firebird until she decided if she wanted to replace Andrei or promote him to the position permanently. She had given him two months to prove himself.

"Hello?" he answered the phone. Not a good sign, she thought. He should recognize her number instantly.

"Karl," she didn't bother to identify herself; if he was too stupid to figure it out, then he wasn't worth the effort. "I need you to get to the club now."

There was a long pause on the other end, then "Yes, ma'am!" followed by another pause as if waiting for her to explain.

"What do you want me to do when I get there?" he finally asked.

Idiot, she thought. "I will tell you when I get there. Do not speak to the police until I get there, do you understand?"

Another hesitation, "Yes, ma'am."

She ended the call and was dialing Alexei when the accountant walked in. She waved him out and waiting for the door to shut behind him before making another call.

"_Gospozha,_" a deep voice answered.

"Lev, there is something weird going on and I need you here," she tried to keep her voice calm, but she was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

As expected, Lev didn't hesitate before answering, "I will catch the next flight out and be there in a few hours. I'll phone you when I land."

"I'm sorry to do this to you," she told him.

"I know. I will be there soon," and he hung up.

She stood in the middle of the room for a moment, gathering her thoughts and composing herself. Lev was the only person that she ever showed the tiniest bit of weakness to, but he had worked for her father as his head of security for over a decade and had seen her go through some of the worst moments in her life. He was her rock. But he was flying from the east coast and wouldn't be there for hours and there was a lot that needed attention right now, starting with the books.

Nova went to the door and invited her accountant back in, she didn't have time for a thorough accounting, but he could give her the highlights in a few minutes. That would have to do for now.

An hour later, feeling better about the finances of her businesses, Nova's driver pulled up in front of the Firebird. Karl was standing outside, pacing and wringing his hands. When he spotted Nova's SUV, he hurried to her door and hurriedly opened it.

Nova took in his white face, shaking hands, and panicked expression. "Are the police here?" she asked, concerned.

Karl shook his head vigorously, "No, but...," his voice trailed off and he looked down to avoid her eyes.

Nova waited for him to continue. "But?" she prompted.

"You won't believe me," he muttered.

"About what?"

"Please," his voice became an annoying whine, "just come inside and see for yourself."

"See what?"

"Just..., please?" he implored again, finally meeting her eyes with a pleading look.

"Fine," Nova snapped. "Carmine, go with Karl and check it out. Dax, you're with me."

Carmine quickly exited the SUV and went into the club with Karl, while Dax turned off the vehicle and came around to wait for her. Nova walked quickly to the door of the club and entered, only to stop short when she almost ran into Carmine's back just inside the door. She put a hand on his arm and pushed him aside to step around him, only to abruptly stop again, staring with disbelief at her club.

Her brain couldn't process what her eyes were seeing as they darted from point to point, fruitlessly seeking something that made sense. Despite it being midday on a Sunday, the club was packed. It was as if she had stepped into a scene from a movie; a cross between the Star Wars cantina and the main office of Men in Black. Green skinned women were pouring drinks at the bar for patrons with tentacles, flippers, hooves, and multiple arms in a rainbow of colors. An ensemble of alien creatures played unidentifiable instruments from the middle of the dance floor while a two-headed woman sang and provided her own harmonies. The music was both jarring and enthralling at the same time.

A winged creature flitting above the dance floor drew her gaze upwards and vertigo gripped her as she seemed to fall into the infinite field of stars that arched over their heads instead of the ceiling. Nova knew she needed to look away from the impossible sight but couldn't tear herself away. It seemed to draw her in, and she was willing to let it happen. Why not, she asked herself, there was no way this was real, so she just allowed it to swallow her.

A whimper from Carmine, finally brought her back to her body and the club around her. She slapped Carmine on the arm to get his attention, "Follow me," she commanded him and Dax, who didn't seem as gob smacked as the rest of them. She indicated Karl, "Dax, grab him."

She had a sinking suspicion who was behind the otherworldliness that had invaded her club and, if she was right, she knew where to find him.

She wove through the madness, stepping over the tail of some snake-monkey looking creature with yard long antennae on its head, that spat something that didn't sound complimentary at them when Carmine tripped over it. Thankfully, the stairs were still in place and seemed solid as she marched up them to the door of her office. Keying in the access code, she flung the door open and stepped inside.

After the chaos outside, her office was a haven of normalcy. Nova drew a shuddering breath before turning her wrath on the smirking god sitting at her desk with his boots resting on its glossy, black surface.

"You!" she said accusingly.

Loki adopted an innocent expression that was far from convincing. "What?"

"What is THAT?" she demanded, pointing behind her to indicate the club.

Loki grinned again, "It was dead out there when I got here, so I livened it up a bit."

When he had arrived at the club, he had been disappointed to find it empty and dark since his chat with the bartender indicated she spent almost all her waking hours at her office. He had guessed she would end up here eventually, so he entertained himself by creating the vignette downstairs. It had been exhausting, but worth the effort now that Nova was standing in front of him, her eyes sparking with ire and her cheeks flushed. He could tell her temper was about to explode and that was the whole point. He had considered slowly chipping away at her calm exterior, but, hell, he was never one for half measures, so this was his version of a full out assault on her emotional armor.

"Liven it up a bit?" she repeated, her voice rising. She turned to her bodyguards, "Someone shoot this fucker!"

When nobody in the room moved, she shouted, "NOW!"

Both bodyguards moved at the same time, the dark haired one drew his gun with an eager look on his face, the blond one with a lot less enthusiasm. When they aimed at him, he used his magic to make himself invisible and created two copies of himself on either side of Nova.

"Really," one of the false visions asked.

"You are going to shoot a gun at a god?" The other finished.

The blond shifted his aim from the copy on Nova's right to the one on her left, indecision making him waiver. The dark haired one barely glanced at the copies and kept his aim on Loki's invisible form even though there was no way he could see him still sitting there. Interesting.

Loki's attention was pulled back to the blonde, when he fired at one of the copies, barely missing Nova; the bullet going through the illusion and shattering a bottle on the other side of the room. Nova jumped out of the line of fire and the oaf took aim on the other copy. Loki didn't know what was better, the look on the idiot's face when the bullet passed through the illusion harmlessly, or the look of pure rage on Nova's face at almost being shot by her own man.

"Stop!" she commanded, but the blonde pulled off a shot at the other copy. It also went through harmlessly and something on the opposite side of the room shattered.

Nova stepped up to the man and put her hand on his holding the gun, "Carmine, stop! They're not real."

Carmine pulled his focus off the two copies and looked down at his boss, a bit at loss.

"They are not real," she repeated slowly as if talking to a child and took his gun from him.

Loki watched with interest as she exchanged a knowing look with the dark-haired man, then without turning her body, pointed the gun at him where he still sat at her desk and both of them fired simultaneously. Neither stopped until both guns were empty. Loki would have been impressed if he hadn't been occupied deflecting the bullets harmlessly to either side of him.

When both guns were empty, Nova handed her weapon back to the inept blonde at her side who looked at it blankly while the dark-haired man reloaded his weapon. Loki released his illusion allowing the two copies to vanish and himself to reappear in the chair. With a flick of his hand the two guns whipped out of the hands of both men to land on the desk near his feet.

"Tell them to leave," he told Nova.

"You don't issue orders to me," she snapped back.

Loki rolled his eyes, "Tell them to leave or they will spend the rest of their pitiful lives believing they are 10-year-old girls."

He could tell she was debating another retort, so he raised a hand threateningly.

"Give us the office," she bit out between her clenched teeth.

Two of the guys moved to obey her immediately, but the dark-haired one hesitated.

"Dax, just go," she commanded over her shoulder.

When all three had left, she walked over to the couch against the wall, and sank gracefully into its cushions. She looked across the room at him expectantly but didn't say anything. Loki sat at the desk for another moment, savoring his small victory, then he stood up and moved across the room to plop down in the middle of the couch.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, leaning her head back and looking up at the ceiling instead of looking at him.

"Didn't we have this discussion yesterday?"

"Not really."

"No?" He laid his arm along the back of the couch and ran a finger down her blue clad arm.

She jerked away from his touch and abruptly stood up. "No," she repeated. She stepped just out of his reach and turned back to face him. "You said yourself that you are a god, so what are you doing? You've tried to take over the planet. You helped defeat one of the most powerful beings in the universe. You can travel through space and dimensions."

"All true," he nodded.

"So, what are you doing slumming here in my corner of Los Angeles, playing games with me? Isn't this beneath you, or something?" She ended her argument by bracing her hands on her hips and looking at him defiantly.

She did have a point, but he wasn't going to let her know that. He also didn't want to mention that the Avengers, including his brother, didn't trust him and were keeping a close eye on his activities. Playing mind games with a crime lord was something they might overlook.

"I can't help it if I find you humans endlessly amusing," he said truthfully, shrugging.

"So, you are just going to keep doing," she struggled to find the right words and finally settled for pointing out the plate glass window, "things like THAT until you get bored and move on?"

He shrugged again, "Maybe."

Nova nodded to herself, then walked back over to the couch and sat down again. "Ok," she started. "Is this what my club is going to look like from now on? Because if it is, I need to let my staff know so they won't freak out so much." She paused for a moment, thinking, "Are these, uh, aliens?" She paused again and looked a Loki for conformation. When he nodded, she continued, "Are these aliens even paying for the alcohol they are drinking?"

Loki burst out laughing. She obviously had lapsed back into a mode that she could use to make sense of things: business. He considered letting his illusion continue, but it took a great deal of his energy to maintain and it had served its purpose. He waved his hand and the club outside the office returned to normal.

Nova snorted. "That's a neat trick. You know, you could make a lot of money if you wanted."

"I have no need for your money," he dismissed.

"No?" she replied with disbelief. "Isn't your home, Asgard, located here on our planet now that it was destroyed?"

Loki stood up and turned on her. "That is not my home! It will never be my home! This is a farce!"

Nova looked up at him from the couch with a knowing look on her face, "I see."

Her condescending tone lit the flame under Loki's temper. He stormed back to her and leaned down, placing a hand on either side of her shoulders and brought his face down until his nose almost brushed hers. "No, you DO NOT SEE! You see nothing, you pathetic, weak, sack of worthless meat!" He spat at her.

Surprisingly, Loki's tirade didn't bother Nova, this was something she knew she could handle. Her anger at him was still coiled beneath her calm exterior, waiting to be unleashed.

"Oh, but I do. You aren't bored. Not really." She said it with a quiet voice that she knew was as bothersome to him as he had been to her.

"No?" he snarled. "What am I then?"

Nova had a choice: she could cater to his ego and diffuse the situation, or she could say what she really thought and take her chances that she could handle whatever he, in his rage, would throw at her. If she took the first option, maybe he would lose interest in her and go away. The second option? She wasn't so sure of the outcome, but she knew she had never been one to back down, especially once she was pissed off, and she was REALLY pissed off right now. There really wasn't a real choice, now was there?

"You're a second rate goddling, who has been defeated every time you have tried to set yourself as something more. The only time you have succeeded at anything is when you teamed up with others more powerful than yourself." The words rushed out of her in a heated tumble. "You are a failure and now you are taking out your anger on a pathetic, weak sack of worthless meat that doesn't have the superpowers or magic to fight back because that is the only way you can feel superior."

She held herself perfectly still, maintaining eye contact, challenging him, while she waited for his response. She could feel the chill coming off his body that he held so close to hers and his green eyes glowed like hot green flames. She could see exactly when he lost control over his anger.

He reared back, grabbing her wrist in a grip of steel and yanked her up off the couch and into his lean body. "Second rate?" he hissed at her. "Let's see how second rate I am."

The floor of the office fell away from Nova as the world around her turned into a whirl of color and her stomach lurched alarmingly. The only thing tangible she could discern was Loki's grip on her wrist. After what seemed like hours, or maybe only seconds, since time had lost meaning, the color faded, and she could feel a surface under her shoes. She swayed, trying to regain her balance, putting out a hand and bracing herself on something solid. Once that was accomplished, she raised her head to take in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that her hand was grasping the front of Loki's tunic. He looked down at her with outright scorn as she released him and tried to step back.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned her, not releasing her wrist.

Nova stopped herself and settled for turning her head to look around, her anger draining away. The first thing she saw was an orange sky filled with purple and green wispy clouds and a huge pink crescent moon dominating the sky. They were standing on a ledge high up on a tall spire that reached above a boiling ocean of what looked like lava. Noxious green and purple fumes rose from the lava, forming the clouds in the alien sky. She saw movement in the lava, and moments later spied the rolling red coils of some kind of great, scaled serpent swimming through the waves like an eel through common saltwater. A roar drew her attention, and she watched with fascination as another great beast rose from the depths of fire and cleaved the serpent in two with a single bite, then dive back into the depths. A flick of its spiny tail flung chunks of lava high into the air before it completely disappeared.

Loki's jerk on her wrist brought her attention back to him. He was obviously looking for some kind of response from her.

"Magnificent," she breathed.

Loki recoiled slightly. "What?"

"Magnificent," she said in a steadier voice, still trying to take in the wonders around her. "This is amazing."

"Amazing?" he repeated.

"Yes," she actually smiled, then it faltered. "Wait, is this real or one of your illusions?"

"You can't tell?" he seemed proud of himself.

"I don't think...," she said, looking around and trailing a hand along the rough side of the spire they stood on, "that this is real." She looked back at him for conformation.

He stepped into her personal space and crowded her back into the side of the spire, the rough stone dug through the thin fabric of her blouse. "You should be afraid."

"Why?" She had a feeling she knew why, but she wasn't going to satisfy him by saying so out loud.

"I brought you here and I could just leave you," he said with an evil glint. "You can't even breathe the air here. Without me, you would be suffocating right now."

Nova knew it wouldn't be smart to continue to bait him, so she stayed silent. Apparently, that was enough because suddenly her throat and lungs burned as she struggled to draw a breath. Her vision blurred as the poisons in the air viciously stung her eyes and she could no longer see Loki standing in front of her. He had left her! She tried to scream, but only a ragged croak emerged from her straining throat.

She slid down the rock face, shredding her blouse and tearing the skin on her back, dropping to her hands and knees on the ground. The burn of the wounds was compounded by the poison atmosphere, but it hardly registered as her consciousness faded from either lack or air or the fumes. Hot tears poured down her face falling on the ground under her as she blacked out and crumpled to the ground.

The first thing Nova became aware of was the bone-chilling cold seeping into her body from the hard ground she lay upon; hard on its heels was the burning of the wounds on her back. She sat up and filled her lungs with the clear, cold air. It hurt to draw that breath and her throat felt like she had swallowed glass, but it still felt good to be able to do so.

The world around her was dark and cold, everything formed from either black rock or gray ice. Nothing moved, not even a breath of wind. It was a deserted, dead place.

"Are you afraid, yet?" a harsh voice demanded.

She looked up and her breath froze again. Loki stood over her, but it wasn't the same Loki that snatched her out of her office. His skin was a pale, blue-gray color with raised runes and sigils adorning his skin, and his eyes were a deep blood-red with slightly darker pupils. She pushed herself up and shakily stood to face him, her anger flaring white hot and giving her strength.

"Is that what you want?" she rasped, stepping closer to him and raising her chin in a challenge. "You want me to cower at your feet? Beg you for mercy?" She gave a pained laugh at the incredulous look on his face. "I have news for you, Loki, that is never going to happen. I do not cower. I do not beg for mercy. No matter what you do to me, you are going to fail! So, you might as well take me back to that toxic planet and leave me to die!"

Once the words left her lips, she knew she had pushed him too far once more. He grabbed her by her wrist once more and the dark cold world they were on faded around her.

Loki stood over Nova after he dropped his illusions, panting as the anger leeched from his body and left him with a dull ache. She was laying on the floor of the office where she had collapsed. He had to give her credit, she was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to challenge him the way she did. Most humans, and many Asgardians, would have been terrified by what she just went through, but she just stood there and taunted him yet again.

He then bent down and lifted her into his arms. For as tall as she was, she weighed hardly anything. He would have to order her some more burgers, he mused. He carried her to the couch and laid her upon it, taking care to place a pillow under her head. It was time for him to be going, before her guard dogs came looking for her and he didn't feel like dealing with them. With one last look at the intriguing woman sleeping on the couch, he let himself out of the office through the back exit.


	7. Chapter 7: Delayed Gratification

Chapter 7: Delayed Gratification

It never failed, whenever Nova was having a good dream, it was inevitably interrupted by an intrusion from reality, but if she was trapped in a nightmare, it was as if the real world feared to intervene. Such was the case now, she was trapped on a distant, fiery planet being chased by a giant black serpent across a field of lava. No matter how fast she ran, it was always right behind her, its breath burning through her clothing and searing her back. She knew it was a nightmare but couldn't force herself to wake up as the rocks under her feet sank into the lava and her shoes burst into flames. The serpent was upon her, its claws tearing at her back and…

"Gospozha," it called to her as it shook her like a ragdoll.

Nova struck out in defense, her nails leaving steaming furrows down its sides.

"Gospozha, wake up!" it called again, grabbing her flailing hands with its own and shaking her again.

Nova's eyes snapped open as she scrambled off the couch and across the room. She stood there panting, trying to get the frantic beating of her heart under control. Carmine picked himself off the floor where she had shoved him, holding a hand to the side of his face. Karl and Dax stood at the other end of the couch, watching her warily, and Viktor held his hands up as he slowly approached her.

"Gospozha?" he said slowly. "Are you ok? Do you need anything?"

She looked from him to Carmine then back and swallowed. "The bar?" she asked hesitantly.

"Back to normal," Viktor answered.

"You saw it?"

"Yes, I got here just before it…changed back."

She looked around the room quickly. "Loki?"

"Gone," he answered. He was now close enough to gently take her arm and lead her to a chair to sit. It spoke volumes to how shaken she was that she allowed him to do so. "He must have gone out the back. We didn't see him leave."

"Then how do we know he's really gone?" she asked.

"We don't, but what are we going to do?" He shrugged.

"He's gone," Dax said flatly.

Both Nova and Viktor looked at him for a further explanation, but he just shrugged.

Nova drew a deep breath into her aching lungs and leaned back in the chair. The leather was cool against her bare back. Well, she didn't imagine that part, she thought to herself.

She motioned to Carmine. The side of his face had four deep scratches that were bleeding. "Did I do that?"

Viktor answered for him, "You were having a nightmare."

"I see," she pinched the bridge of her nose between a finger and her thumb. "Dax, take him and get him cleaned up. If he needs stitches, take him to see the doc."

Dax looked like he might refuse, but Viktor shot him a look and he and Carmine left the office. She was definitely going to have to have a talk with him, but not now.

Viktor moved away from her and sat in the other chair facing her. "What the hell is happening, Gospozha?"

She shook her head, "Fuck, I was going to ask you." They both chuckled. "I have a missing heroin shipment, half a million dollars' worth of cocaine stolen, problems with the triad, a gang war in the making, and now a FUCKING GOD," she slapped her hand down on the arm of her chair, "screwing with me." She looked at him, "Tell me you have something, anything, Viktor."

He shook his head, "I don't. Ilia's lead didn't pan out."

"Damnit," Nova leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling.

"How do we know all the other shit isn't Loki's doing also?" he asked.

This time, she shrugged, "we don't. But what are we going to do?" She repeated his words earlier and smiled weakly at him. Then, "Lev is coming back tonight."

If the news surprised Viktor, he didn't let it show, instead he nodded, "good."

Good indeed.

The police showed up about an hour later to question Karl and his staff about the dead bartender. They provided camera footage of Angel leaving the club by himself after closing Friday night and the contact information for the servers and bartenders that worked with him that night. Nova provided them with her statement seated at the desk in the office so they couldn't see the condition of her blouse and become suspicious. She didn't need any additional problems to deal with right now.

On her way home later, she received a call from Nash. Another body missing its eyes and brain had showed up. This time it was the mayor's assistant. Nova vaguely remembered him, a beady-eyed, little worm of a man that she had not had many dealings with. Still, it was disturbing. Maybe Lev would see something she didn't.

Across town, near the rail station, Ilia was nervously picking at his nails while he waited in his car. The alley he had chosen was far enough from the tracks to guarantee the absence of security cameras, but close enough to the main road that he could make a quick escape if things went sideways. He never knew what to expect from his new business partners; Zhu could be unpredictable at best, irrational at worst. Ilia just hoped the prospect of gaining control over the heroin trade for the entire city would be enough to keep him cooperative.

Just a few minutes after the set time, a black SUV pulled up behind his car. Ilia's stomach churned and he popped a couple antacids and chewed them as he got out. This was always the worst part, walking up to an unknown vehicle not knowing for sure who was hidden behind the dark tinted windows. He half expected to be greeted with the barrel of a gun when the window rolled down at his approach and gave a quick prayer of thanks when the bland face of Lie Jaing appeared.

Lie looked at Ilia expectantly, "You have the meeting place?"

Ilia passed him a slip of paper, "Here's the address and time."

"You will delay Viktor as agreed?"

"Yes, of course," he nodded a bit too enthusiastically.

"Good. We will be in touch," Lie informed him and rolled the window up, cutting off any response Ilia might have made.

He got back into his car and watched the SUV pull away and disappear around the corner before he breathed a sigh of relief. "Damn Chinese," he mumbled to himself. That was the cost of doing business though, he could put up with them for now. Once he had control of the cocaine, he mused to himself, he wouldn't have to put up with their shit. For now, he would play the lackey and bide his time.

Loki strode into his suite at the hotel in high spirits. He was already planning his next assault on Nova's façade and couldn't wait to put it in motion. He stopped short when he saw Braggi and Volstagg facing him from across the room and Nick Fury seated in a chair by the window.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I just thought I would pop in and check on the newest member of the Avengers," Fury said, not without a bit of sarcasm.

Loki snorted and started to walk past him to the bedroom, "Well, as you can see, I am doing just fine. No plot brewing to take over your planet, for now. You can see your way out."

Braggi stepped in front of him to block his exit, "You need to hear what he has to say."

Loki rolled his eyes, "No, not really interested. I'm not one of your Avengers." He moved to go around Braggi, but Volstagg grabbed his arm.

Loki looked down at his hand, "If you don't want me to tear your arm off, I suggest you let go of me now."

Volstagg hesitated but released him, repeating Braggi's statement, "just hear him out."

Loki paused and closed his eyes, calming himself. He realized that he was only allowed to roam Midgard at the forbearance of its governing bodies and the assurances of Fury and the Avengers that he would behave himself. Damn, but he hated this shit. He should just leave and find somewhere else in the nine realms to spend his time.

Fury's voice cut through his musings. "If you are done throwing a tantrum, we need your help."

Loki turned and looked at him incredulously, "My help? You don't have enough superheroes at your beck and call, that you have to come bother me?"

"Believe me, you are the last person I would want to rely on for anything, but I'm afraid the rest of my superheroes are busy doing other 'superhero' stuff and you're here right now where the problem is." Fury uncrossed his legs and leaned forward to place a disk on the table in front of him. A push of a button on its side brought up a holographic image of a body.

"This was found yesterday. Notice anything unusual about it?" Fury looked at Loki expectantly.

Loki rolled his eyes again and walked over to the table to peer at the image. "The eyes are missing," he stated dismissively and looked at Fury.

"Look closer."

Loki rotated and enlarged the image for a better view then looked at Fury with surprise, "the brain is missing too."

The head of Shield nodded approvingly, "your brother said you might have some ideas."

"Is this the only one?"

"No, another was found this morning." Fury waited for Loki to process the information.

"There are several species that can do this, it might be an isolated case. One or two individuals that got missed when Thanos was defeated or during…," he trailed off.

"During the failed invasion of New York," Fury completed the sentence in an accusing tone.

"Are you ever going to forget my part of that," Loki demanded in exasperation. "How many times do I have to help your precious Avengers before you quit throwing that back in my face?"

"Probably never," Fury answered truthfully. "The fact of the matter is that you are inherently untrustworthy. It's just your nature."

"Well, then this is pointless, isn't it?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I've been told people can change." Fury turned off the holograph and stood up, pocketing the device. "Be that as it may, I need you to look into this. If it is a rouge alien snacking on human brains, take care of it. If it's a new invasion, though, we need to know."

"Yeah, yeah, find the alien, kill it, blah blah," Loki mocked.

"Glad you get it," Fury replied walking to the door. Before he exited the room, he turned and looked back, "oh, and, Loki?"

"What?" Loki snapped.

"Don't fuck up. We'll be watching." With that he left, closing the door behind him.

Braggi and Volstagg looked at Loki expectantly. "What?" he demanded, irritably. This was going to interrupt his fun with Nova. Damn Fury.

They looked at each other then back at him. "What are you going to do?" Volstagg asked.

"We," Loki intoned, "are going to do a sweep of the city. You guys check for bodies. I'll check with the cops. Maybe we'll find something useful."

They looked at each other again and shrugged.

Loki slapped his hands together with fake enthusiasm, "Let's get going. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to our fun."


	8. Chapter 8: Face Off

Chapter 8: Face Off

Monday arrived bright and full of promise, at least that's what Nova told herself as she sat out on her patio and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. She was going to try to take it easy for a bit. When she had looked in the mirror in the bathroom, she had looked pale and drawn, complete with dark circles under her eyes that almost looked like bruises. Maybe she could squeeze in a quick trip to the spa and get a massage and facial. She couldn't spend all day indulging herself, though; the meeting between the gangs was later that evening and there was still Zhu to deal with. Thankfully, Lev flew back in last night and was on his way over.

One of her housekeepers brought her a refill for her coffee and the morning papers. She paged through them looking for any mention of the dead bartender or anything drug related as she waited for Lev. Interestingly enough, the news of the bartender's death was buried on the third page, along with that of the mayor's assistant. She made another mental note to call the mayor and offer her condolences and maybe some suggestions for a replacement; she didn't care for his last assistant in the slightest.

Shortly after 8:00 Lev arrived and joined her out on the patio. She rose and greeted him with genuine warmth in her smile, "Lev! Welcome back!"

The big man smiled back just as warmly and wrapped her in a hug, "Myshka!" his pet name for her since she was a little girl. He released her and held her at arm's length, assessing her. "You look tired."

She waved off his concern, "I'm sorry for interrupting your time with your family! How is your sister?"

"Nonsense, I had already overstayed my welcome. Thea is doing much better anyway; the treatments are doing the job. She sends her love to you."

Nova shot him a disbelieving look, "yes, I'm sure she does." She indicated a chair, "please sit. Would you like some breakfast or coffee?"

"No, thank you. I ate on the way over and my doctor says I either need to cut back on caffeine or alcohol. So, no coffee!"

They both laughed at his joke as they sat at the table. Lev glanced at the papers and became serious, "I've spoken with Viktor and Barak."

"It's not looking good, Lev. And the mess with Andrei at the club. Karl is a hot mess; I can't leave him in charge for long." She picked up the paper and handed it to him, "And now a dead bartender."

"And Loki?"

Nova put her elbows on the table and cradled her head in hands, "I don't know what the fuck that is about. I guess I'm his new favorite toy. His timing sucks ass. I mean, it would suck anyway, but right now, I just don't need this shit." She peered over the top of her hands at Lev, "It's not like I can call in the Avengers to help, can I?" She pretended to talk into her phone, "Oh excuse me Captain America, can you do something about Loki, he's messing up my drug business…." She leaned back in her chair and chuckled, "Yeah, I can't see him being too keen on helping me out."

"Perhaps there's another avenue we can take," Lev mused.

"Yeah, where's a good supervillain when you need one?" she laughed.

"You know," he held up a hand, forestalling her amusement, "I may have an idea."

Nova leaned forward in her chair, "What?"

"Let me make a call," Lev replied. "It may not pan out, but who knows? We might just get lucky."

"Well, we could use some luck right now," she stood up. "Let me know if you come up with something. I'm going to get dressed and go get a massage, before I get neck deep back into things."

He stood up also, "I will go coordinate with Viktor and Barak."

"Oh, and contact, Rick at Bad Wolf. See if he can give up Stephanie for a few weeks to run the Firebird."

Lev nodded his agreement, "Stephanie is a good choice. She should be running her own club by now anyway."

"Yeah, and let Karl know. Make sure he won't be a problem with taking orders from her."

"I will, Myshka. Go relax and take care of yourself for a while. We will meet you at the office after lunch."

Nova met up with Lev, Viktor, and Barak at the Firebird a few hours later, feeling more like her old self after a morning of being massaged and pampered. As she sat down at her desk, she couldn't help but feel something was off with everything that was going on. There was just a lot going on suddenly throughout her business and none of it was good. Her bottom line had just crawled back into the black last month and now it was in danger of diving back down into the red.

"Viktor and Barak have brought you back up to speed?" she started by asking Lev. Maybe he could see a pattern.

He nodded, "Yes, and it seems odd that you are having trouble with both the triad and the street gangs at the same time, but I can't see them being related."

"Me neither, but it is concerning," she agreed. "Barak, did Zhu come through with his shipment?"

Barak shook his head, "No, and he isn't returning my calls this morning."

"Ok, reach out to Santiago and see if he can get us a shipment. Let him know that if he can keep up with demand, it could turn into a long-term relationship." At his nod of acknowledgment, she continued, "quit trying to reach Zhu. We do not beg. Let him reach out to us first, then schedule a meeting. I want to be there."

"Yes, Gospozha. I will let you know."

"Good." Nova turned to her other lieutenant, "Viktor, you're good for the meeting tonight?"

"Yes, Ilia and I have it handled. Antonio is just looking for a way to save face and not go to war with the B-Streeters. He's a businessman at heart, not a thug."

"And the B-streeters?" she asked.

"They know they are outgunned. They don't want this war any more than Antonio."

"You make this sound like it should be easy."

"Things are never easy in this business, but we should be able to work this out quickly and get back to normal."

"Whatever normal is for us right now," she qualified. "Take Lev with you, you'll need him if things get out of hand." At Viktor's nod she continued, "Let's get these two issues taken care of, then we can turn our attention to dealing with Loki and his meddling."

Viktor and Barak stood and left the office to take care of their tasks, but Lev stayed seated. Nova raised an eyebrow, "You have something to say?"

"Are you sure about dealing with Santiago?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair and clasping his hand together.

"No, I'm not, but I don't see where we have a lot of choice. The Chinese are not delivering product and we cannot afford to sit on our thumbs waiting. If we don't get something out on the streets, someone will step in to fill the void, then we'll have a fight on our hands to get it back." She stood and paced around to the front of the desk. "Santiago is a psycho, I know. Pappa always said to avoid doing business with him, I know. It's a risk, I know," she rapped the desk with her knuckles with each repetition of 'I know'. "Do you have a better suggestion?" She leaned back on the desk facing him.

Lev shook his head, "No, Myshka, I just wanted to make sure you understood what you were getting into." He stood. "I have to go. I've got some things to do before the meeting tonight."

"Go," Nova waved her hand towards the door. "And, Lev," she said, stopping his departure, "make sure this works, ok?"

"Of course, Gospozha," he nodded differentially and left the room.

Once the door shut behind him, Nova went to the bar and poured a generous amount of port and took it back to the desk. There were so many things that could go wrong, it was making her anxious and jittery trying to suppress the stress she was feeling. She needed something to go right soon.

Downstairs, Feliks was leaning against the bar talking to one of the female servers. His shoulder was still sore from the knife wound, but well enough that he was allowed to resume his duties as one of Nova's bodyguards. He was hoping, though, that he could use it to generate enough sympathy for the curvy blonde to go home with him later. It seemed to be working like a charm and he was about to suggest they meet up later when Dax interrupted.

"Hey, we're needed out back," the taller man said, coming to stand beside the blonde.

Feliks looked up at the office and then back at him, "She's out back?"

"Yeah, she's waiting for us, let's go." Dax turned and started towards the back entrance.

Feliks gave the girl an apologetic smile, "See you later?"

"Sure," she replied, reaching out and placing her hand on his where it rested on the bar. "Call me."

He smiled and pushed away from the bar to follow Dax and shoved the folded-up napkin with her phone number on it into his pocket. Today was turning out to be a good day.

Dax was waiting for him outside in the alley, but the boss was not, nor was her SUV in sight.

"Where's the boss?" He asked the other man, looking around the alley.

"Oh, I lied, she's not here," Dax replied.

"What's going on?" Feliks was confused but not alarmed. He and Dax had been working together for over two years and he had no reason not to trust him.

"There's someone I want you to meet," Dax pointed behind him.

"Who?" Felix turned around to see who it was and stopped, his mouth open but no sound coming out. His brain was having a difficult time comprehending what he was seeing: grayish skin, a clawed hand. There was a sudden pain from his eyes and the world went dark as a pressure gripped his head behind his eyes. The pressure grew until it became unbearable, but his screams of pain only came out as gurgling whines.

"Hurry up before someone comes to check on us!" Dax commanded someone.

There was blessed relief when something in his head gave a crack and the pressure abated, then there was nothing.

Craud waited impatiently for Bagruls to finish sucking out the human's brain and assume his form, thinking to himself that they were lucky that Loki and the Avengers were on a planet with such simple life forms. Humans were easy to overcome and imitate, unlike some of the other sentient life scattered around the nine realms.

Bagruls stood up from the remains of the human, his gray flesh morphing into disgustingly soft, pale skin and his large form shrinking and becoming frail and weak. When the transformation was complete, Craud walked around him, assessing the copy of Feliks, while Bagruls shifted uncomfortably trying to adjust to his new body.

He grunted approvingly. "Good. Walk around a bit out here to get used to it, then come back inside. The woman he was just talking to will be next."

Craud/Dax motioned for two others to come out of hiding. "Get rid of the body. And make sure it stays gone this time! We do not need the Asgardian getting suspicious before we are ready to make our move."

What Loki wouldn't do to have his library back but since it was destroyed with the rest of Asgard, that wasn't about to happen. All that knowledge: gone forever. Somedays, that loss bothered him more than the loss of the place he had always called home.

Standing over another body missing its eyes and brain, he allowed himself an indulgent moment to mourn the loss before carrying on with his examination. As he had told Fury, there were a handful of aliens that took the brains of their victims. The Brood came to his mind immediately, but they use the bodies afterwards; controlling them like puppets. The Chitauri were another possibility, but he was pretty sure they were all destroyed when Tony used the gauntlet to defeat Thanos. He was drawing a blank on others right now.

Volstagg had discovered this body in the trunk of a car in a junk yard on the outskirts of the city, the smell of decay strong enough for his Asgardian senses to pick up when he passed nearby. This one, plus the other two found by the police, brought the total up to three. Three that they knew of. This was starting to not look like the work of a lone individual. He wondered who she was and if there was a connection to the other two victims, but there was no ID on the body.

"What now," asked Volstagg.

"Keep looking. There might be others, we need to get an idea how many we are dealing with," he replied, wondering if it would be worth the effort to call the police. He could tell them he was working with SHEILD, but they might not believe him and, even if they did, they still might not tell him what they found out. But he told himself with a secret smile, there were always ways around that problem. He pulled out a cell phone and dialed 911.


	9. Chapter 9: Unexpected Encounters

Chapter 9: Unexpected Encounters

Lev, Viktor, and Ilia left the Firebird later that night for the meeting between the gang leaders. Lev's presence made Ilia more nervous than he would be comfortable admitting, but he had to let things play out if he was to fulfill his end of the bargain with the Chinese. As the SUV pulled off the freeway onto Valley Boulevard there was a loud pop from the right front tire. He had handpicked both the route and their driver to ensure his plans went off without a hitch, still he was still taken by surprise when their SUV swerved violently, jumped the curve, and crashed into a light pole.

The four of them emerged from the vehicle, Lev and Viktor with their guns drawn, searching for a threat. Ilia made a show of looking at the tire, then called out to them, "it's just a blown tire, that's all," drawing their attention to him at the front of the vehicle while his man kicked the board with nail in it into the storm drain. He just needed them to think it was a freak accident for long enough not to raise suspicion.

"Fuck!" Viktor cursed, kicking the offending tire. "This fucks everything up!"

Lev looked at the tire and then at Viktor, "How far is it to the warehouse?"

"About five minutes in the car, forty-five walking."

"Call Antonio and let him know we are running late and why. Tell him we are on the way." He looked at Ilia, "Call us a car, get it her as fast as you can."

Viktor stepped away to make his call and Lev pulled out his phone, presumably to call Nova and let her know.

Ilia walked a few yards away and made his call. "Go," is all he said when Lei Jaing answered. Lie didn't even acknowledge him, he just hung up. Then Ilia called Uber for a ride.

When they pulled up to the warehouse, there were at least seven cars parked out front, an eclectic mix of muscle cars, high-end SUVs, and hopped-up Japanese street cars. Not exactly subtle, thought Lev. And not a single person in sight, which was odd. There should have been four or five men for each of the gangs loitering around outside the warehouse; lookouts and guards.

"Hold up," Lev warned as Viktor and Ilia both reached for their doors. "Something isn't right."

Both men turned to look at him questioningly.

He tapped the Uber driver on his shoulder, "flash your lights three times."

The driver did as he was told. They waited a few seconds in silence. Still no movement.

"Wait for us," he told the driver, and opened his door slowly, stepping out with his gun drawn. Viktor and Ilia followed suit.

They split up for the approach to the warehouse, weaving between the parked cars.

"Body!" Viktor called in a low voice, but Lev had already found one himself; one of the B-Street Boys sprawled on the ground in front of a black Escalade with at least two bullets in his back.

"Got one here, too," he called to Viktor.

"Two over here," said Ilia near the loading dock.

Lev had a sinking feeling ever since the flat tire, and this was confirming it. Abandoning all pretense of stealth, he strode up to the door of the warehouse and threw it open and stepped inside. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the flickering for the single overhead light, but once it did, the carnage inside came into focus.

"Mary, Mother of God," breathed Viktor behind him.

Laying on the floor were at least ten bodies, a mixture of B-Streeters and Norteños. They were in a rough circle, like they had been rounded up and corralled. Their guns were scattered on the concrete floor around them. Bullet casings caught the scant light coming from overhead and sparkled like gold coins. Lev approached the closest body, a B-Street enforcer he knew, and squatted beside it. He counted more than a dozen bullet holes in the man.

"Whoever did this was using automatic weapons," he told Viktor.

"What do you think? Was this a power play from within one of the gangs?" Viktor asked him.

"What else would it be," Ilia answered instead. "Nobody else would be stupid enough to do something like this."

Lev considered his words. "I don't know. This was a lot of fire power. "

"Come on, Lev," Viktor put in, "nobody else knew about this meeting outside of them and us. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"That is still a lot of mouths that could have let it slip to an outsider," Lev argued, not willing to let it go. "And something about all this doesn't feel right."

"Whatever is going on," Viktor said as he walked over to stand by Lev, "we need to get the hell out of here before the cops show up or whoever did this comes back."

Lev nodded his agreement. "Let's go. We've got to tell Nova."

"Are you sure?" Nova asked into her phone, her face pale. She was on her way home with Dax and Feliks.

"Meet me at the apartment. Bring Viktor," she ordered, then ended the call.

"Trouble, Gospozha?" Dax asked, turning to look at her.

Nova sighed and nodded, "Lots." Then she leaned back in her seat and contemplated what to do next.

When she walked into her apartment, she was surprised to find Skye and Nikki waiting for her. She had not given them any indication that their presence was required tonight.

"What are you doing here?" she asked them, pouring herself a drink at the bar.

Skye answered, "you asked for us."

"No, I did not," Nova frowned at her over her glass.

Skye lifted one bare shoulder in an elegant shrug, "Karl told me you wanted us tonight."

Nova most certainly did not tell Karl anything of the sort. What the hell was going on?

She heard a door behind her open and close and Dax tell someone, "hurry up, before they get here."

Something was off. She put down her glass. "I'm going to change into something more comfortable before Lev gets here," and started walking towards her bedroom.

Skye stepped in front of her to block her escape. "We can't let you do that," she simply said as she looked behind Nova.

Nova turned and saw Dax walking towards her with something out of her nightmares. It was large, towering over the two men by more than a foot, and greyish-green sickly-looking flesh. Its eyes were obscured by a metal band wrapped around its head with openings to see out of and had other bits of what looked like armor made from the same metal. Its long arms were ended with four think fingers tipped with lethally long claws.

She took a step backwards into Skye, who grasped her arms from behind to hold her in place. She acted on instinct, bringing her heel down hard on Skye's foot and slamming an elbow into her stomach. Skye cried out and released her. Nova spun around her and sprinted towards her room.

"Get her!" Dax commanded the others. "Don't let her get to her room!"

Nova could hear them behind her but didn't dare look back. She just needed to get to her rooms ahead of them. Once there, she could activate her security and seal herself in. Within a few feet of her door, however, Feliks stepped in front of her. She collided with him and his strong arms wrapped around her.

"Gottcha!" he grinned down at her.

She fought him with everything she had. She stomped his feet, kicked his shins, even slammed her head back into his. He withstood it all, merely grunting with each blow she landed, all the while tightening his arms around her until she was grasping for breath.

"Quit fighting," he said in her ear. "You're making this harder on yourself."

He held her still as the alien creature crossed the room to them. The others stood to the side and watched. When it was standing in front of her, it reached out its long, clawed hands and grasped her head between them. Then it leaned towards her. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see what was coming.

From behind her came a grunt, then a thud and the crushing grip of Feliks' arms fell away from her. She opened her eyes just in time to see a flash of silver and the alien in front of her scream in a weird warbled voice and turn away from her. Nova took a step back and stumbled over something on the floor and fell on her ass.

She looked at what she had fallen over and saw it was Feliks' headless body. She had landed in a pool of viscous gray liquid that was still squirting from the severed arteries of his neck and she quickly scrambled away only to bump into another object. It was his head, his sightless eyes blindly staring at her as she swatted it away, the gray slime on her hands leaving a print on his face.

Another warbled cry pulled her attention from the head rolling around on her floor like a gruesome soccer ball. She looked up to see Loki fighting with the alien creature armed with only two knives. To his credit, he was faster and appeared to be winning by the number of wounds on its torso. But Skye and Nikki were circling to come up behind him and she couldn't see Dax at all. Where the hell did he go?

Nikki darted in to strike at Loki, and she opened her mouth to cry out a warning to him, but Loki spun inhumanly fast and sliced him across the throat before completing the spin and reengaging the gray alien. Gray liquid spurted from Nikki's throat and he went down in a heap. Skye leapt over his body, a long butcher knife in her hand, to join the fight, but Loki swatted her aside while not taking his eyes off his main target.

Nova decided it was time for her to get her ass in gear and pushed herself up off the floor. She had a gun safe in her room, if she could just reach it. Turning her back on the fight taking place, she dashed towards her rooms.

Only, this time, Dax stepped between her and the door to her room. He had an evil grin on his face and was pointing his gun at her.

"Oh, I don't think so," he told her. "You aren't getting away that easily."

He grabbed her by the arm and turned her back towards the fight between Loki and the others. Skye had gotten up off the floor and was circling, looking for an opening. The gray alien was slowing down, the multiple cuts covering its body thick gray fluid that ran down its body.

Skye darted in again, and Loki caught her in the chest with one of his knives. Her forward momentum ripped the knife out of his hand, and she kept going until she hit the opposite wall, then slid down it to land lifelessly on the floor.

Three down, two to go, Nova thought. She needed to do something about Dax. She was a scrapper, but had never had any formal self-defense lessons, but there were a couple of things she had picked up over the years. Number one was that men always underestimated women.

When they reached Feliks' body, she pretended to slip in the slime on the floor and collapsed against Dax. Instinctively, he reached to catch her, and she twisted and made a grab for his gun. She might had succeeded if the heel of one of her beloved Louboutins hadn't caught on that damn head on the floor. Instead she found herself clutching his arm as she really fell and they both went down in a pile on top of the body. She felt, rather than heard, the gun in his hand go off and felt a sharp stab of pain in her side, followed by the warm flow of blood.

Dax shoved her off of him as the door to the apartment opened and Lev and Viktor walked in and froze at the tableau in front of them.

Dax was the first to recover, "Shoot them!" he said raising his gun.

Both Lev and Viktor drew their weapons and pointed them at Loki and the gray alien, but Nova had gotten her breath back.

"No!" she yelled weakly. "Shoot Dax! He just shot me!"

Lev without hesitation turned his gun on Dax, but he was inhumanly fast and yanked Nova to her feet and positioned her in front of him as a shield holding his gun to her head. She could barely stand and swayed on her feet and he was forced to wrap an arm around her to hold her up. She could feel herself going numb and the world was starting to get fuzzy around the edges of her vision.

Meanwhile, Loki had finally finished off the alien and turned his attention to Dax.

Dax took a step back and pushed the gun harder into Nova's head. "I wouldn't come any closer unless you want your new toy's brains blown all over the floor."

Loki smirked at him and took another step. "You're an idiot if you think I give a damn about a human. Was that your plan? Imitate her to get to me? If so, you should let someone else do the thinking from now on."

"You are going to pay for what you did to my people, Loki of Jotunheim, traitor to your own kind. All of you are going to pay!" Dax flung Nova at Loki and ran for the door, shoving Lev and Viktor aside as if they were nothing.

Loki caught Nova and cradled her against his body. She looked up at him and attempted a weak smile, "I'm bleeding all over your pretty clothes." Then she went limp.

Not for the first time, Loki wished that he had his mother's abilities to heal others as he watched the human doctor extract the bullet from Nova's side and stitch the wound. The older man had assured Lev and Viktor that it hadn't hit anything vital and she would be fine with a few days of rest. But looking down on her, pale and helpless instead of the fierce she-bitch she normally was, he felt a twinge of regret that he had toyed with the Chitauri instead of killing it quickly. If he had, the other that was wearing the face of one of her bodyguards wouldn't have had the chance to shoot her and escape.

He had already contacted Braggi and Volstagg and they were on their way. Hopefully, they could pick up the trail and track it down.

Strange that it seemed to have agenda against him and the Avengers.

The one called Lev came over to stand by him. "Not that I'm ungrateful, but what were you doing here?" he asked.

Loki allowed his sly mask to slip down over his features, "I was bored and came to fuck with her some more."

"Well, then I suppose it's a good thing she won't be any fun for you to torment with for a while," he told Loki with a dark look.

Loki shrugged. "It's a shame. She was fun." Then he turned to leave the room to escape Lev's accusing look and the sight of Nova.

"I've made some calls," Lev called after him. "If you come back, you might not like what you find."

Loki stopped and turned to look at this brazen human. "Are you threatening me?"

This time Lev shrugged, "Not me, but there's got to be someone out there that you're afraid of. Think about it."

Loki turned and left the apartment, his anger burning like bile in his throat.


	10. Chapter 10: Wrong Side of the Bed

Chapter 10: Wrong Side of the Bed

"It's a shit-show right now, Gospozha," Viktor told Nova from his position at the end of her bed. "We've had our hands full just maintaining control the last two days. The B-Streeters and the Norteños have temporarily put aside their animosity towards each other and turned it towards us. There's open warfare on the streets."

Lev continued the report from his chair beside her, "we are under a lot of pressure from our friends in the police and higher."

Nova frowned and wave a hand in dismissal, "we are always under pressure from our friends." Her voice dripped with sarcasm at the word 'friends'.

"Do we have any idea who was behind the massacre yet?" she asked her men.

Only Lev would meet her eyes. "No, Gospozha, but we are questioning every one of our people that had any connection to the meet. Ilia is out on the streets talking to all of our contacts to find a lead."

"That is not helping us right now," Nova pointed out. "What about our allies?"

Lev shook his head, "most of them are taking a 'sit back and wait' approach."

"In other words," she snarled, "they are waiting for us to fail so they can pick our carcass clean like the bunch of vultures they are."

Lev nodded. "Exactly."

"Product?" Nova changed to topic, looking at Barak.

"We are almost dry," he told her.

"Did you reach out to Santiago?"

Barak grimaced, "yes, Gospozha, he's willing to meet and discuss terms."

"Good. Set up a meet."

Barak looked uncomfortably at Lev. Nova looked from one of them to the other. "What?" she asked.

Lev sighed and rubbed his neck. "He will only meet with you."

Nova was not surprised, "set it up for as soon as possible. Tell nobody outside this room. Understand?"

Barak looked relieved and nodded vigorously, "absolutely, Gospozha!"

She waved him away, "Go, get it set up."

After Barak left the room, she returned her attention to Viktor. "Without the B-Streeters and the Norteños how are we doing moving product?"

"Not good," Viktor said, looking down at his hands. "Those two were our biggest distributors in the city."

"Are they getting product from elsewhere?" Lev asked him.

"They are still selling, but not the quantities they normally have," he answered. "They are either going through the rest of their supply from us, or they have another source, but not as flush as us."

"Okay," Nova told him, considering their options. "Let's see if we can push product down the coast to San Diego. We need to keep the cash flowing."

"That should take care of the business end of things for a while, but what are we going to do about the B-Streeters and the Norteños?" Viktor asked her.

"The only thing we can do is find out who is responsible," Lev responded.

Nova agreed. "Who would gain by taking them off the board?"

"Are we sure that was the purpose?" Lev asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"We seem to be the ones that are catching the most flack for the massacre," he pointed out.

"So," she said, thoughtfully, "you think all this was to take a swing at us?"

"Well, let's look at it from that angle for a moment," he held up a finger. "First, we are having problems getting heroine from our Chinese connections."

Viktor interrupted him, "Wait, are you saying these are connected?"

"Just let me finish." He continued, holding up a second finger, "our primary distributors have just been killed in a meeting set up by us, making it look like we did it and completely fucking up our cocaine business."

It did look suspicious, but Nova shook her head. "I don't see a connection, Lev."

"There has got to be one. We are just missing it."

"Then find it," she instructed him.

Both Lev and Viktor turned to leave the room. "Stay for a moment, Lev," she ordered.

When Viktor had left the room, she lay back on her pillows, exhausted by the meeting, but she couldn't afford to be laid up in bed for more than a day or two. She would have to get the doc to give her something to get her on her feet by tomorrow.

Lev looked down at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Not really, but it doesn't matter. Viktor's right, we have a shit-show on our hands." She closed her eyes for a second, then refocused on her most important concern.

"Those things," she started.

"Chitauri," Lev corrected. "Loki says there are Chitauri. The same things that invaded New York and that Thanos used as his army."

"And you trust him enough to believe him?" She asked. "They weren't more of his damn illusions?"

"No, the bodies were real," he answered her second question first. "And, no, I don't trust him, at all."

"Are the Chitauri after us or him?"

"Loki believes they are after him," Lev answered. "And it is just a coincidence that it is happening while all the other shit is hitting the fan."

"Great," she sighed. "They can imitate anyone they want?"

Lev shook his head, "no, they have to have direct contact with them first. They, um," he hesitated for a breath, "they suck out the brains of their targets to extract their memories."

She raised her eyes to him, "So they're all dead," she said flatly.

"They found Skye's body earlier today. She had been dead for a couple of days. The other's bodies haven't been found yet."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Without opening them, she told Lev, "I think I need to sleep now. Send for the doc, I want to see him in a couple of hours when I wake up."

"Nova," Lev began.

"Just go, Lev," she said, her voice breaking.

Only when she heard the door shut behind him did she allow the tears to fall. Despite her rules, she had cared for Nikki and Skye. Their deaths hurt more than the wound in her side at the moment. She rolled on to her side and curled into a ball and, burying her face in a pillow, screamed and cried until she fell into unconsciousness.

Once Nova fell into a restless sleep, Loki released the illusion that hid him in the corner of the room. Her response to the death of her people was surprising. He hadn't thought she was capable of such a depth of tender feelings. She had such a hard, uncompromising personality, who would have thought it was just a shell. Once again, Loki was gripped by regret that she had been injured. There was still so much to be explored with her. She was fascinating and he enjoyed his games with her.

That was the only reason he was so furious at the Chitauri right now, why his blood boiled, and he was consumed with the need for vengeance. Or at least that is what he told himself. It most assuredly was not the feeling of her lithe body as it went limp in his arms and his alarm that she had died. Nor did it have anything to do with any feelings he thought he felt as he looked down on her exhausted, tear-stained face. She was just a diversion, nothing more.

When a nurse came in to check on her, he made himself invisible again and slipped from the room. He needed to meet the others.

Braggi and Volstagg had discovered more bodies, which did not come as a surprise. What did startle him was the number that they found: eleven. Combined with the ones they and the police had already found, that brought the total up to fourteen. Even he had to admit, there was something serious going on. And it was bigger than just a lone, renegade Chitauri.

It was time to call Fury.

"Well?" Braggi asked him from his place on the couch in their suite.

"He's pissed," Loki told him with a grim smile.

Volstagg snorted loudly, "Fury's always pissed. He's angrier than even you are all the time."

"That's not what I'm asking," Braggi told the two. "What's he want to do about it?"

Loki walked over to the window to look out on the night sky over the city. "He wants to send some of the Avengers here to take care of it."

Volstagg slammed his drink down and sputtered. "What? He doesn't think we can handle a few stinking Chitauri?"

"Lucky for your pride, then, I was able to convince him to let us handle it," Loki assured him as he turned away from the view.

"You think you can drag yourself away from that woman you've been hanging around?" Braggi said with a grin.

Loki felt a stab of irritation at Braggi's teasing but he schooled his expression to one of indifference. "She's out of the game for a while until she's healed, so I have nothing better to do."

"Good to know you don't plan to kick her while she's down," Volstagg told him.

"Do we know the names that go with all the bodies you found today?" Loki turned the conversation back to the Chitauri and away from Nova.

At Volstagg's nod, he started for the door. "Then that's where we'll start." He paused, "oh, and let's see if we can capture one or two alive. Maybe we can get something from them."

Across town, Ilia and two men loyal to him, were waiting in his car in an alley behind an abandoned building. According to the chick he was fucking, this was where and when the next gun delivery would happen. He couldn't believe his luck in catching the fancy of Mikhail's girlfriend, but not surprised. Mikhail had seen better days. He used to be a prize fighter before Nova put him in charge of running arms for her, and his face certainly looked like it. Not that he had been good looking to begin with, Ilia thought with amusement, but a nose that had been broken one too many times and a cauliflower ear didn't help his less than spectacular looks. The fact that his girlfriend was drop dead gorgeous was a constant source of amazement and speculation in the organization.

After fucking her a few times, Ilia discovered that Katie was as stupid as Mikhail was ugly, but she was a constant source of information about the arms deals the Mikhail was brokering. That is why he was sitting in this crappy alley right now instead of being deep inside the lovely Katie.

"Here they come, boss," Boris snapped him out of his thought of Katie's tits bouncing as she rode his cock.

"Wait until they are parked, and we will make our move," he told Boris and Yury.

They waited until the black SUV pulled past their hiding spot and parked behind the building. Then Ilia got out and walked out of the alley and up to the SUV.

As he approached, the driver's window rolled down and Mikhail called out to him, "Ilia, what are you doing here?"

He walked up to the open window and looked in the SUV. Besides Mikhail, there were three others. This was going to be easy.

"Lev sent us to back you up. With all the shit happening with the gangs, he wants to make sure this goes down smoothly," he told Mikhail.

Mikhail frowned, "He didn't say anything to me."

"Are you sure? Have you checked your messages? He said he called you."

When Mikhail looked down at his phone, Ilia pulled his gun and shot him in the side of the head, then shot the guy in the passenger seat three times in the chest. Boris and Yury opened the other doors of the SUV and filled the others with bullets.

Ilia opened the driver door and pulled Mikhail's body out and dumped it on the ground while Boris and Yury did the same with the others. Then Boris drove the SUV while Ilia and Yury followed in his car.

When the buyer showed up for the deal, he was met by the four bodies lying in the dirt behind the building. He pulled out his phone and made a call.


	11. Chapter 11: Give Me Something to Break

Chapter 11: Give Me Something to Break

"I really don't approve of this," the doctor told Nova, his bushy mustache almost quivering with consternation, while he watched her adjust her skirt and appraise her appearance in the mirror. She was a bit on the pale side, but hell, she just got shot two days ago and lost a lot of blood.

"I don't pay you to approve of what I do. I pay you to keep me on my feet so I can do what I do," she told him bluntly. "If you can't do that, then I'll have to find someone that can."

"I have been taking care of your family for almost twenty years, I'm used to how bullhead every one of you are, so don't give me that crap," he snapped back at her, not intimidated in the slightest.

"Good," Nova told him. "Now give me some fucking pills for the pain that won't knock me on my ass."

With a scowl, the doctor pulled a bottle out of his pocket and set it on the dresser. "Don't take more than two every four hours," he instructed. "And don't overdo it! Stay off your feet as much as possible."

She grabbed up the pills and kissed him on the cheek as she walked past him out of the room. "See, that wasn't so hard was it?"

The doctor's harrumph followed her out of the room.

Lev was waiting for her out in the living room with Carmine, Alex, and four others she didn't recognize.

"These are your new bodyguards. You'll always have three with you, from now on. This is Dmitry, Maxim, Vince, and Bob," Lev introduced the four big, blonde men that looked like they could be brothers.

"Bob?" she asked with a raised brow.

"My mother didn't have much imagination," the man in question told her deadpan.

Nova turned her attention back to Lev and frowned, "how do we know they aren't imposters?"

Lev pulled out a short knife and held it up. "They bleed gray goo, right?" At her nod, he nicked his finger and squeezed out a drop of red blood. "Guess I'm good."

"Not that you would tell me you weren't if you were one of them," Nova told him with a dubious look. "So, we just go around and poke all our people?"

Lev didn't smile at her weak attempt at humor, "I can call them all in one at a time and do it in front of you, or you can trust me to get it done."

Nova almost told him she wanted to witness every drop of blood, but she knew she didn't have the time or stamina. "No, you take care of it. I just want to see these four."

One at a time, each of her bodyguards took the knife and drew blood to prove they bled red. She couldn't help but think that her father would have loved this shit, but it was straining her patience. She hadn't even left the apartment and she already wanted to hit someone.

"Will these do?" Ilia asked Lil D as the new defacto leader of the Norteños examined the assortment of semi-auto and full-auto weapons in the back of the stolen SUV.

"Fuck yeah, man," Lil D answered with an appreciative whistle. "Fucking B-Street trash won't know what hit them."

"So, I've held up my end of the deal. It's your turn," Ilia reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, man, I hear you," Lil D waved away his concern. "We hit the B-streets this weekend. When we are done with them, there won't be enough of them left to even roll a blunt."

"Then just lay low until Nova is taken care of. Once I have control of the coke, we are back in business."

"Abso-fucking-lutely," Lil D casually tossed the gun back on the pile and turned to bump fists with Ilia. "Take that uppity bitch down!"

Ilia grinned at him, "oh, yeah, she won't know what hit her by the time I'm done. If she's lucky, maybe I'll let her be my bitch. Once she learns her place."

Loki sauntered into the Firebird to inform Nova she was down one more employee, a cute blonde with big tits that bled gray when he and Braggi had hunted her down earlier that morning. He had stopped by Nova's apartment prepared to find her still in bed recovering, but the headstrong woman was up and about and at her favorite office. He was disguised as the dead blonde so he could slip past her guard dogs, but after he observed her reaction to the deaths of her people last night, he wouldn't keep it up for long.

His grin couldn't be suppressed as he thought about his latest plan; he had taken great pains to come up with something entertaining that wouldn't be too stressful on her or interrupt her recovery. He had outdone himself on this one, even if he said so himself. Too bad very few people enjoyed his illusions as much as he did.

His progress through the club slowed and came to a halt as he noticed that all the employees were standing still, staring up at the office with varying degrees of fear, alarm, and confusion. Angry screams, the sounds of objects hitting walls, and the crashes of glass breaking. Three brawny guys stood outside the office door, looking for all the world like nothing unusual was going on inside. Every once in a while, when there was a particularly loud thud or crash, the glass wall behind them would vibrate alarmingly and one of them would flinch.

Loki looked around and saw Lev leaning casually against the bar having a drink while he watched the office. Not dropping his disguise, he walked over to Nova's enforcer. "What's going on?"

Lev set his drink down on the bar and cut his eyes over at him, "None of your business. Get back to work."

Loki shrugged his scantily clad shoulders, "I'm off right now. Can I do anything?"

"Are you volunteering to go in there?" Lev asked him skeptically.

He batted the blonde's big blue eyes at him with a completely innocent look, "Why not? Maybe she just needs someone to talk to."

Lev laughed out loud, "someone to talk to? I don't think that is what she wants right now, but you know what, go ahead. Go see if she needs anything." He laughed as he picked up his glass and took another drink.

Loki put a brave look on his face and pushed away from the bar, but before he had made it two steps, Lev grabbed his wrist. "Wait," he said, pulling out a small knife. "We haven't tested you yet."

Loki had no problem looking confused. "What?" he asked in a breathless little squeak.

"Hold out your hand," Lev commanded. "We've got a new requirement for all employees.

Loki held out his hand just out of curiosity, but he had no intention of allowing the man to cut him with the knife. When Lev brought the knife to his hand, he wove the illusion to show the blonde woman's finger being pricked and a drop of blood pooling.

Lev handed him a napkin from the bar. "You're good," he said. "You can go. That is if you still want to," he grinned.

Oh, thought Loki. They were checking for Chitauri imposters. Smart, almost crafty.

Shooting Lev another confused look, he marched resolutely up the stairs to the office. When he reached the door, one of the big men moved to block him, but with a wave from Lev, he moved aside and keyed in the code for access. When the lock clicked, Loki grasped the handle with his dainty, pink tipped fingers and pushed it open.

He might as well have walked into a war zone. Immediately upon entering the room, he had to duck to avoid a shoe flying at his head. The floor in front of the glass wall was littered with glass, liquid, and papers. One of the smaller tables was laying on its side a few feet away where it had rebounded, one of the legs broken and another one crooked. Other, heavier furniture was turned over in place, the leather of some of the pieces sliced to shreds.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?" a strident voice demanded.

Loki allowed his disguise to drop as he took in Nova's appearance. She stood barefooted in the center of the destruction; her mouth open as she panted for air. Her face was flushed and her blue eyes wild. She had her other shoe clenched in her raised fist, stopped in the act of throwing it. When it dawned on her who had walked in on her, her eyes narrowed dangerously and she flung the shoe at him, the spun to grab another object from the shelf behind her.

"Mother fucker!" she yelled at him and flung a winged statuette that he easily dodged.

He quickly crossed the room and grabbed her around her waist as she turned to snatch up yet another projectile. She shrieked like a trapped animal, kicking and clawing at his arms. He was glad he was wearing his leather, or she would have shredded his forearms with her nails.

"Let go of me!" she screamed at him, trying to twist free, but he was much stronger than her and all she succeeded in doing was popping several buttons off her blouse.

He leaned down and put his lips to her ear, "you need to calm down," and tried to insinuate himself into her mind. To his dismay, she was too enraged to him to gain any purchase in her thoughts. To make things worse, she had torn her stitches and was bleeding again from her gunshot wound.

"If I let go, will you calm down?" he tried a soothing tone.

She stilled in his arms, her chest heaving as she tried to calm her breathing. Then she slammed her head back trying bash it into his. He was only able to avoid her assault because he half expected it and he was a lot faster than any human.

At a loss on how to get her to calm down and unwilling to hurt her more, he tried the only thing that came to his mind: he spun her around and brought his lips down on hers. With one arm holding her to him and the other hand entangled in her hair to hold her head, she couldn't move and just froze.

Her lips were soft and yielding and he sucked her full bottom lip into his mouth and nipped it with his teeth. This elicited a soft gasp from her, and her lips parted in surprise. He took the opportunity to delve into her mouth with his tongue and felt a shudder rack her body. She tasted like red wine, rich, velvety with a tiny hint of sweetness. Perfect for her. He plundered her mouth with abandon, forgetting why he had initiated the kiss.

Shock had paralyzed her when he kissed her. Of all the actions she had anticipated, this was the most unexpected. Then she had expected him to be brutal about it, but instead he gently sucked on her bottom lip, making her gasp at the sensation. When he invaded her mouth with his tongue, he tasted slightly bitter but spicy, and she was lost.

She relaxed in his embrace, forgetting her rage and the pain of her freshly opened wound. There was nothing but his mouth and his cool body against hers. From their place braced against his shoulders to hold herself away from him, her hands reached up and wrapped around his neck and into his silky, soft hair, pulling him closer instead. She whimpered in her throat as he broke the kiss, only to lower his lips to her neck and press hot kisses and tiny bites to the sensitive skin.

She could feel his lean, hard body pressed against hers, but wanted more. She wanted to feel his skin on hers, his hands on her bare skin. When he pulled her blouse down, to expose her bare shoulder so he could explore her collar bone with his lips, she clung to him and leaned her head aside to give him better access.

The door to her office crashed open and Lev's shout broke through the daze of passion like cold water, and she shoved Loki abruptly away from her and slapped him hard.

He just rubbed that side of his face and smirked at her. "At least you quit throwing things."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded in a voice that was a little too shaky and stepped back towards her desk, only to discover her legs not obeying her brain. Strong, familiar arms caught her before she fell as Loki scooped her up and carried her to the couch.

"You should get that doctor," he told Lev, who had a gun pointed at him, as did all three bodyguards. "She's bleeding again."

With his back to the others, he smiled at her. "You got blood on my clothes again," he said soft enough that only she could hear.

Nova started to answer but found her tongue wouldn't obey her and the room was spinning alarmingly. Only Loki wasn't moving so she focused on him, until her eyes became too heavy to keep open.

When Nova passed out, Loki turned his attention to Lev, who had just finished his call to the doctor.

"Who the hell let her out of bed in this condition?" He snarled, rising to his full height to tower over the shorter man.

Lev snorted and motioned for the other three to put their guns away. "You don't know her very well if you think anyone can tell her what to do."

"Someone needs to before she kills herself!" he snapped. "And what the hell was this all about?" he asked as he motioned to the destruction of the room.

"What do you care?" Lev snapped right back at him. "And what was going on when we came in?"

Both men glowered at each other, neither willing to be the first to give in. Loki considered using a bit of magic to make him comply but was interrupted when one of the servers came to the door.

"There's a stripper from the Grey Goose downstairs, Lev. She's almost hysterical and insists on talking to you," she told him, her eyes big as saucers at the scene in the room.

"She can fucking wait," he almost yelled.

The girl flinched, but held her ground, "it's Mikhail's girlfriend. She keeps saying it was her fault."

That got Lev's attention. "Fuck," he muttered, looking around the room. "Bring her up to the balcony seating, I'll be right out."

When she had left, he told the bodyguards to wait outside for the doctor and bring him in as soon as he got there, and to keep an eye on the stripper to make sure she didn't leave before he saw her. Then he turned his attention back to Loki and Nova.

"I'm getting too old for this shit," he told the Asgardian.

Loki gave a half-hearted laugh, "I don't think anyone is ready for what she can dish out. I don't think even Odin had a temper that matched hers."

Lev went to the bar against the wall and found two glasses that weren't smashed and a decanter that was still intact. "It would figure that she would leave the tequila," he said, shaking his head, and poured both of them drinks.

Handing Loki one glass, he asked, "so what the hell were you doing in here?"

Loki looked at the alcohol then took a drink and sputtered at the taste. "Gods, that's awful!"

"Yep," Lev agreed, tossing his back in one swallow. "Probably her way of punishing us, even when she's unconscious."

Loki set the rest of his drink down. "She was hysterical and hurting herself. It was the only thing I could think of to calm her down," he explained.

"Can't believe it worked," Lev chuckled.

Loki joined him, "I half expected her to bite my tongue off."

"She still might," Lev said.

"Probably," he agreed. "So, what set her off?"

"Business problems," Lev hesitated to tell him too much.

Loki shot him a look.

"Ok, someone has declared war on us and is taking us out a bite at a time. First, we our heroine supplier started 'losing' shipments to us. Then our cocaine distributors where shot up in a massacre that is being blamed on us. The last straw was when a major gun deal went bad and someone made off with all the weapons." Lev paused here for effect. "Oh, and don't forget, there's this dick of a Norse god playing with her and the Chitauri are killing her people and shooting holes in her."

Loki gave him a warning look, "watch yourself, Mortal."

They looked at each other for a moment and silently reached an accord.

Lev said it first, "Truce?"

"Truce," Loki agreed. "Go see to the girl and I'll stay with her and wait for the doctor."

When Lev hesitated, Loki nodded to Nova, "she would be pissed as hell if you let something slip while she was out of it."

"True," Lev agreed. "But I'm sending in one of the guys. I'm still not sure I trust you."

Loki gave him a wolfish grin, "you shouldn't."


	12. Chapter 12: A Walk in the Park

Chapter 12: A Walk in the Park

Nyah woke up in her own bed several hours later. The lights were dimmed so they didn't hurt her eyes, but she still had to blink several times to bring the room into focus. A soft sound of cloth on leather from nearby had her turn her head cautiously to the side. She frowned in confusion to see Loki sitting comfortably in one of her chairs from the living room pulled up next to her bed, his feet propped up on her bedside table, gazing intently at her electronic tablet. Sensing her attention, he looked up from his reading and smiled softly at her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him weakly.

Instead of answering, he held up the tablet. "Do you know that you can read any book you want from Midgard on this thing?"

She made an annoyed noise and attempted to sit up, only to find herself immobilized by a broad strap stretched across her midsection with her wrists restrained in padded cuffs attached to it.

"What the hell?" she demanded and started to struggle against the restraints.

"If you don't calm down, I've been told to just push this button," he indicated the IV metering machine that was standing by her bed. The clear tubing from it ran to an IV attached to her arm with tape. "It will give you something to knock you back out. I would rather not do that. You are much more interesting to be around when you are awake." He tapped his fingers on the top of the machine, waiting on her decision.

With an irritated huff, she quit struggling and dropped back down into her pillow. "Get Lev," she ordered him.

He grinned and shook his head, "I'm not one of your lackies that you can order around, Nova. And none of them are willing to be in here to tell you no when you try to get up. So, you are stuck with me."

She blew out a breath, looked up at the ceiling, and counted to ten before she said, "how long am I stuck here?"

Loki shrugged and walked around to the end of her bed, "the doctor said if you behaved, maybe you can be up and around by Friday."

It was Wednesday, so that was two days, she thought with alarm. "Am I going to be tied to this bed the whole time?"

He uncovered her foot and ran his cool fingers up it to her knee. He looked up at her, "only if you get unruly."

She kicked her leg to get him to remove his hand. "Unruly? How about you undo these straps and I show you how unruly I can be?" she said in a silky voice.

"Oh, I think we both know what you are capable of. I've got your blood all over my favorite jacket." He ignored her kick and continued to run his hand up her leg, pushing her sheet aside as he went. "The question is: how good can you be?"

Goosebumps rose on her skin following the path of his hand. "Stop it!" she snapped, although without as much force as she normally would have.

His look told her he knew it. "Still trying to order me around?"

"If I scream, they will come running."

"Will they?" he smirked. "You're so sure their even out there?"

"Lev would never leave you alone with me," she said.

Loki stopped his ascent up her leg and withdrew his hand. She immediately missed his touch. "Then, by all means, go ahead and scream," he challenged, moving back to the foot of the bed.

Not one to back down from anything, she called out, "Lev! Get in here!"

For a handful of heartbeats, the only sound was the beeping of the IV machine as Loki and Nova squared off from opposite ends of the bed, then the door to her room was pushed open.

"Yes, Gospozha?" Lev asked as he stepped into the room.

Nova tore her gaze away from Loki and looked at Lev with irritation. "Why the hell am I strapped to this Goddamn bed? Get these off me, NOW!"

Shooting Loki a look, he approached the bed and started unbuckling the straps. "The doctor wants you to stay in bed until Friday."

"That's fine, but I'm sure he didn't mean for me to piss my bed like a frightened ten-year-old," she reasoned.

"True," he agreed and released the last buckle, freeing her. "Just take it easy for two days. Please, Myshka," he asked her with a sad look on his face. "You scared me twice this week. I don't think my old heart can take much more."

Nova pushed herself into a sitting position then reached up and cupped the side of his face. Her face softened as she told him, "I'm sorry, Lev. You know I have too much of my father in me."

He pulled her hand away from his face and raised it to his lips and kissed the back of it. "I know. Take care of your business," he nodded towards the bathroom. "I'll be back in an hour to fill you in on what I've found out and you can decide what our next move is."

As he walks to the door, she called after him, "Wait. You're leaving me here with him?" she nodded at Loki who had sat back down in the chair and had was reading on the tablet again.

Lev gave her an apologetic smile, "we have a truce."

"Truce?"

He nodded. "And he's the only one brave enough to tell you 'no'." With that he walked out and shut the door behind him.

Nova looked at Loki incredulously and caught him smiling and looking over the top of the tablet at her.

"The whole fucking world has lost its Goddamned mind!" she huffed and walked slowly to her bathroom.

Loki's laughter followed her.

Loki laughed until she slammed the bathroom door, then he put down the tablet and went out into the living area where Lev and Viktor were waiting on him.

"Are you really going to tell her tonight?" he asked Lev.

The older human nodded, "this is not something I want to keep from her. If you thought she was out of her mind earlier, it would be nothing compared to her reaction if we do that."

"But," Viktor put in, "we have a solid plan to present, so maybe we can keep her in bed resting for the next two days."

"And if not?" Loki asked them.

"Isn't that why you are here?" Lev asked him with a sly look of his own.

Loki glanced at the doorway into the bedroom, "I'll come up with something," he told them. "Go take care of what you need to. I'll deal with her until you get back."

Lev stepped between him and the doorway, "remember our deal."

"Don't worry," Loki looked down his nose with distain. "I'm out of changes of clothes to replace the ones she's bled all over. I'll keep her safe. Now go."

Lev stood his ground for a bit longer before stepping away. "Come on Viktor, we have a trap to set up."

Nova stood under the hot water and just let it pour over her, reveling in the feel of it on her skin. She turned and put her hands on the wall and bowed her head, allowing it to run down her back. She carefully kept her mind a blank, purposefully not thinking about everything that had happened during the last week, just concentrating on her breathing.

She didn't know how long she had been in the shower, but when she lifted her head, the entire bathroom was full of steam from the shower. It was so thick; she couldn't see past the shower doors into the room. She reached for her shampoo and fingers encountered rough stone instead of smooth tiles.

"Oh, come on! You aren't going to even let me shower in peace?" exasperated, she called out to the person she knew was responsible.

The steam parted as Loki stepped towards her. She turned to face him, not caring that she was wet and naked in front of him.

"I thought you might like a break from your reality," he smiled down at her. "Who wouldn't want to bathe in this setting?" he gestured around.

The steam cleared into a light mist from the spraying from a sparkling waterfall cascading down shimmering black stones into a clear pool that she stood knee deep in. Fine black sand squished between her toes when she wiggled them, and tiny multi-colored fish swam around her calves and disappeared in colorful streaks when she moved. A large cobalt blue dragonfly hovered in front of her face then landed on her bare shoulder, its multiple legs tickling her skin.

An uncharacteristic giggle escaped her, and she clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle it.

"You like?" Loki breathed in her ear, startling her. The dragonfly flew away at her jerk and she was sad to see it go.

The waterfall and pool were completely surrounded by lush green vegetation that she couldn't identify, and hundreds of other dragonflies flitted through the green leaves and vibrant flowers. Sinking down into the pool, she pulled her knees up and rested her chin on one of them.

"I can't believe this is all an illusion," she told him softly, her ire gone. "It feels so real."

He sank down into the pool beside her, his clothes remaining dry. "Well, to be honest, it's not all illusion. I'm in here," he tapped her temple, "helping it out a bit."

She frowned, "you're in my mind? Manipulating me?"

"Your senses," he told her. "That's how you can feel the sand and the warmth of the sun."

"So, I'm actually sitting on the floor in my shower right now?"

He nodded.

"I should be pissed," she said. "Why am I not angry?"

He smiled and winked at her, "I might have something to do with that, too."

She sighed and closed her eyes, "Are you really sitting in the shower with me? Getting wet?"

"Do you have to analyze everything? Can't you just enjoy this?" he asked, slightly exasperated at her response.

She opened her eyes to look at him sadly and gave a slight shake of her head, "that's not how I work."

He rolled his eyes and released the illusion. She was sitting on the shower floor with the hot water still pouring down on her body. She was shocked to see Loki sitting beside her, just as naked and wet as she was, his lean body temptingly close. She remembered how he had felt under her hands when he kissed her and felt an urge to feel his bare skin.

"Happy now?" he asked irritably.

"Okay," she said slowly, almost to herself. "I don't want to do this on the shower floor, though."

His eyebrows went up, "do what?"

She ignored him as best she could, and he was hard to ignore, she had to admit, as she attempted to stand. Loki stood up quickly and reached down to pull her up off the floor. She stumbled a bit, still a little woozy from the gunshot and drugs, and reached out to steady herself. Loki made an impatient noise, bent down and scooped her up in his arms. She instinctively put her arms around his neck and they both paused, faces inches away from each other, the hot water of the shower still spraying them.

Breaking the spell, Nova pulled back first, "you're making a habit of this."

"Maybe that will be my new thing," he quipped. "Rescuing damsels in distress."

She frowned, "I'm not in distress."

"Really?" he laughed as he stepped out of the shower with her, setting her feet on the dry floor of the bathroom, but not stepping away from her.

"No," she insisted, staring up at him. Their bodies were still touching, and she was acutely aware of him. She swallowed and took a step back to put some distance between them so she could focus on something besides how good his body felt against hers. That was a mistake, though, because now she could see all of him, even the parts she had been ignoring up to this point. Oh, but he was impressive, she thought, and quickly turned away to grab a towel.

He didn't fail to notice her discomposure and chuckled at her back.

Walking back into her bedroom, wrapped in a fluffy towel, instead of going to her bed to lie back down, she walked over to the sitting area. She was going to try a different approach. Despite his terrible temper, her father had been a good teacher and one of the things he had instilled into her was not to keep trying the same thing if it kept failing. So, she walked to the middle of the area and lowered herself onto the soft carpet and looked up at Loki expectantly. At least he had the decency to wrap a towel around his hips. He stared down at her, his brows low over his eyes as he tried to figure out what she was up to.

She patted the carpet beside her, "We only have about thirty minutes before Lev comes back."

When he didn't move to join her, she asked him, "what? You don't want to show me your marvelous illusions if I'm a willing participant?"

Comprehension dawned on him, and he gave her a huge boyish grin, and he quickly joined her on the floor, the carpet fading away to become the clear pool and black sand again. She hid her smile; this was much more enjoyable than lying in that damn bed waiting.

A thought occurred to her. "What do you see? Are you here with me or back in the room?"

"It's kind of hard to explain," he told her. "I guess you could say both. I have to know what the illusion looks and feels like, but I also have to be aware of what's going on in reality so that I can adjust accordingly."

"Makes sense," she said. Then she had a thought, "can I explore?"

His grin grew even wider, "of course, My Lady!" He stood and offered her his hand, pulling her up.

She looked down to discover she was dressed in a lovely dress that was somewhere between medieval and futuristic looking, made of the softest silk, delicate lace, and supple leather in various shades of blue. Loki was back in his elaborate suit and coat of green and black.

"Nice," she commented as she took his proffered arm and allowed him to lead her down a path that magically appeared. A small part of her brain protested the illusion and insisted she was still dressed in just a towel in her bedroom, but she ignored it, determined to relax for a few minutes before allowing reality to return.


	13. Chapter 13: Shooting Stars

Chapter 13: Shooting Stars

When Lev and Viktor returned with Barak in tow, she was back in bed, dressed in silk pajamas, and Loki was back in the chair beside her, reading Hamlet aloud from the tablet. She felt much better now that she was clean and appropriately dressed. Wandering around in an imaginary landscape created just for her enjoyment didn't hurt, either. Surprisingly, despite his earlier lecherous behavior, he behaved like a gentleman, even though both of them were only clothed in bath towels. She felt a pang of regret and, even now, was fighting the urge to reach out and run her fingers through his long, black hair.

"You look better," Lev told her.

"I feel better. Maybe I do need two days to rest," she conceded, cutting her eyes to Loki.

Lev looked startled by her admission but didn't comment further.

Switching gears with her usual speed, she said, "tell me you have something to shed light on all the shit going on."

Both Lev and Viktor smiled, but Barak looked angry. "As a matter of fact, we do," Lev told her.

Nova's easy attitude dissipated as he proceeded to lay out Ilia's deception. How Ilia was behind the original dispute between the two street gangs, the stolen coke shipment, the massacre, and finally the stolen gun shipment. He delivered the guns to the Norteños to use to muscle the B-Streeters off the streets so they could control coke sales in the city.

"How did you find all this out?" she stopped him with her question.

"He was screwing Mikhail's girlfriend. When Mikhail was killed and the shipment stolen, she figured out Ilia was pumping her for information and came to me. She's not as stupid as she acts."

Nova nodded and motioned him to continue. Next, he told her how they didn't think Ilia was brave enough or smart enough to do all that alone, so he went on a fishing trip to two of their most loyal heroine distributers. Both confirmed that Zhu had been pressuring them to distribute directly from the triad. From there it was only a matter of getting one of Ilia's men to spill the plans. For Ilia's help in destroying Nova's control over the city, they would help him take control of the coke side of the business while they kept the heroine side.

"That sniveling little worm almost pulled it off," Viktor spat. "The Norteños are planning to move against the B-Streeters this weekend."

"Shit! That doesn't leave us with a lot of time," she muttered.

"It leaves us plenty of time, Gospozha," Lev told her. "Do you think we have been sitting on out thumbs while you rested?"

"You have a plan?"

"Yes," he smiled.

"Tell me."

"Do you have something?" Zhu asked Ilia when he called.

"Oh, yes," Ilia told him barely able to control his glee. "She's playing right into our hands. I think we can put the final nails in her coffin this weekend."

"How so?" Zhu didn't sound as pleased by the prospect as he had anticipated.

"She's setting up a meeting with the B-Streeters to try to strong-arm them back into distributing her product."

"And? Don't you already have their demise planned for this weekend?" Zhu still wasn't getting it.

"You don't understand, Zhu. She plans to be at the meeting. Personally," he paused to let that sink in. "And if she's there, her enforcer and Viktor will be there too." He almost crowed the last.

There was silence on the other end of the connection, then, "Ah, I see. You are right, this is fortuitous for both of us."

"Exactly! We can take out her and most of her highest ranked people as well as the B-Streeters all at the same time."

"Text me the location and time of the meet," Zhu told him.

"I've got this, there's no reason for you to get involved," Ilia protested.

"My people will be there just for support, that's all," Zhu reassured him.

Ilia wasn't too happy about Zhu's interference, but, what the hell, the more guns, the better.

"My people will be in contact for coordination tomorrow," Zhu said and ended the call.

"Bastard," Ilia said to the phone. Then he turned to his two men and issued orders.

"If she's there, he won't be very far away," Dax/Craud told the Chitauri that was impersonating one of Ilia's men. "Gather the others, we will go to this meeting. We will grab the woman and the Asgardian will come to us."

Finally, he thought. He would finally get revenge on the person responsible for the end of his race. If not for Loki's meddling, they would never have been involved in the invasion of New York, nor would they have fallen prey to Thanos' influence when he came for the stone. Now he and his dwindling handful of followers were all that were left of their race.

Loki would pay for his part in their downfall.

Nova sat in a lounge chair out beside her pool and stared up at the few stars that could be seen over the city lights in the sky overhead. It was a warm summer night, so she was dressed is a simple little slip dress that only reached to midthigh, the slight breeze barely moving the light material.

Loki eased his tall frame into the lounge next to hers. "Everything in all set up?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered, not taking her eyes off the stars. "Why are you helping?" she finally asked him the question that had been nagging her for a couple of hours. She had been exhausted after they laid out their plans and she made a few calls to lay in the final touches, so she had slept for a few hours. It had been dark when she woke up and the apartment was quiet. She felt restless, so she had come out here to think. Everything about the plan made sense except for his involvement. She just couldn't figure out what was in if for him.

"Do I have to have a reason?" he asked.

She tore her eyes away from the sky and looked at him. He had shed the heavy jacket and was just wearing the lighter tunic and pants and looked relaxed. She knew better. He was scheming. It was just part of who he was, just like her anger was part of who she was.

"Fine," she said feigning indifference, "keep your secrets." She swung her legs over the side of the lounge preparing to rise.

Strong, cool fingers gripped her wrist. "Wait," he bade her.

She settled back and looked at him expectantly.

"It will be a chance for me to draw out the rest of the Chitauri," he told her. "If they are going to make a move, that would be the perfect time."

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" she asked him, teasingly.

He clutched his chest dramatically, "the pain!"

They both laughed, but then he looked at her curiously. "Why do you do this?"

It was her turn to play coy. "Do what?"

"The crime queen thing," he clarified. "You are beautiful and smart. You could do anything you wanted."

She gave a short, almost bitter laugh. "In case you've missed it, I have a vicious temper. Plus, I have questionable morals. Not a good combination for the corporate world."

"Isn't that what you humans have lawyers for?" he asked half-jokingly.

She didn't answer. Instead, she considered his comment. What she didn't tell him is that she hadn't planned on this life. At one time, she had dreamed of being a doctor. She had wanted to heal people. But then her brothers had both died and her father had reeled her into the family business. After that, she never had a choice. So, she had crushed her desire to heal. It wasn't until after that point that her rage surfaced.

Her thoughts were drawn back to the present by the feel of his fingers on her arm, tracing an invisible pattern.

"There you are," he murmured. "Where were you?"

"No place important," she responded, looking back up at the sky. Changing the subject to something less painful she asked, "what did the stars look like where you grew up?"

Instantly, the sky overhead changed and filled with more stars than she had ever seen in her life. Then her body floated up towards them and she was completely surrounded by millions of points of light. It was even better than floating in her pool at night, even if it wasn't real.

"This doesn't tire you out does it? Is there a limit to what you can do?" she asked.

"Oh, believe me, I have a long way to go before I hit my limit," his voice floated around her.

The sensation became even more surreal when invisible lips kissed their way up her arm to her bare shoulder.

"You know that I have control issues, right?" she asked trying to see through his illusion.

The lips stopped at the pulse in her throat. She could feel the smile. "Do you want me to stop?"

Maybe it was a combination of the pain medication and all the stress from the last few days, but she no longer cared. "Not really."

The lips at her neck laughed softly before placing a kiss on the fluttering pulse, sending shivers down her body. She lifted her hands to thread them through his hair, only to have them pass through thin air.

She pouted a bit, "that's not really fair."

"I never claimed to be fair," came the response from all around her.

She let her arms float at her sides and just gave in to the sensations.

His lips traced her jaw and down the other side of her throat, raining soft kisses, licks, and nips as they went. Cool fingers pushed the strap of her dress down to expose the tops of her breasts where he trailed teasing kisses that didn't quite touch what she wanted them to. She arched her back into him and heard his soft chuckle fill the air.

"Impatient?"

"Always," she sighed.

His lips left her breasts and she groaned in protest only to have it silenced by his mouth coming down on hers. This wasn't like the last kiss they had shared, where he had dominated to shock her into calming down. No, this was a kiss that invited her to join in. She kissed him back with abandon, opening to him and meeting his tongue with hers, tasting, smelling, and feeling but not seeing him. It was overwhelmingly erotic; unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

One of his hands stroked her thigh, moving higher up with each caress while he pushed her other dress strap down to completely bare her breasts to him. She could feel him cup one of them and rub the pad of his thumb across her nipple. The hand caressing her thigh cupped her bare mound and her hips rose in response.

He pulled away from her, "You are so beautiful."

"Let me see and touch you," she asked. "Drop the illusion. I want just you."

The Los Angeles night sky with its weak star light replaced the galactic expanse and she was back on the lounge chair with Loki bent over her. Her dress was bunched around her waist, but she didn't care as she took in him. His bright green eyes where hooded with desire, his lips damp from kissing her.

"You have on too many clothes," she told him.

He smiled and ducked his head almost shyly, but he pushed away from her and stood to remove them. She just laid the lounge all the way down and watched him undress for her.

"I'm glad I didn't try to do it," she told him. "Too many buckles and buttons. I would end up getting a knife and cutting them off."

He laughed, "and I'm running out of clothes that don't have your blood on them."

Finally, he stood there in all his naked glory. He wasn't built like a bodybuilder, instead he had the build of a runner; lean and sinewy. His pale skin almost glowed in the night, his long, black hair hanging to his shoulders like liquid darkness.

"You're the one that is beautiful," she said and held out her hand to him.

This was not what he had planned when he joined her out here, but when she held out her hand to him, he took it and allowed her to pull him down beside her. She was so wantonly beautiful, laying there with her lips swollen from his kiss and her eyes glazed with passion, he couldn't walk away.

He bent and took her lips again, more forcefully this time and she met his force with her own, but instead of dueling for dominance, their tongues and lips danced together in harmony. He cupped her breast and rolled its nipple between his fingers making her moan into his mouth and arch her back to press harder into his hand. He cupped her sex with his other hand and slid his fingers into her warmth, parting her to rub the little bundle of nerves there.

In response she unwound one of her hands from his hair and pressed it against his hand holding him tightly to her. He broke away from the kiss, and took the other nipple into his mouth, sucking hard on it and making her cry out wordlessly.

He slid a finger into her, and she bucked under him. Her hand left his to clutch his back, her sharp little nails biting deliciously. He added teeth to his ministrations of her nipple and pinched the other, while adding another finger to her depths. She was so wet and tight; it took every bit of his self-control not to take her right then. Instead, he curled his fingers inside her as he rubbed his thumb over her bud and felt her whole body stiffen, then shudder as her orgasm gripped her. She contracted around his fingers and she cried out his name to the night sky.

When she began to relax under him, he withdrew his hand and moved between her legs. With one smooth thrust he entered her. Gods, she was so tight it was almost painful. She hissed as he entered her and stilled under him.

"Are you okay?" he whispered in her ear.

"Yes," she answered breathlessly, "I just haven't had a man down there in a long time."

He hadn't thought he could get any harder, but he did at her confession. Cradling her face between his hands so he could watch her expression, he slowly began to move inside her. Her eyes fluttered closed.

"Look at me," he commanded her, and she opened her eyes to meet his. Holding her gaze, he slid almost all the way out of her, then swiftly thrust back in. She bit her lip to keep from quiet.

"Don't do that either." He teased her lip free with his fingers.

Another thrust elicited a moan and another his name again. He began to thrust faster and harder and found a rhythm that brought both of them close to the edge. She grabbed his ass and wrapped her legs around his hips for better leverage.

He felt her orgasm start before she stiffened under him and felt his gather. He changed the angle of his thrusts to penetrate deeper and she screamed his name as she fell apart. His orgasm came right behind it and he buried himself to the hilt in her, his back arched, and he roared to the heavens.

Afterwards, he pulled out and lay beside her on the lounge, gathering her limp, sated body to his and they fell asleep under the twinkling stars.


	14. Wait! I'm Having One of Those Things

Chapter 14: Wait, I'm Having One of Those Things

Friday was spent solidifying all the plans and working out minor details, but there wasn't a lot for Nova to do other than wait. Waiting wasn't something she was overly fond of, and with her enforced bed rest, the day dragged for her. Even Loki wasn't around to keep her occupied, he had departed shortly after dawn to take care of his own agenda.

Sitting in the shade out by her pool, Nova pondered the change in their relationship. Even though he was more tender towards her, he was still the same mischievous person at heart. Her housekeeping staff had spent an hour this morning chasing down little black and white alien creatures that ate anything small enough to get in their oversized mouths. Right now, one was sitting under the table by her, munching on one of her shoes.

"I'm going to call you Nibbler," she told it. It stopped chewing on the shoe long enough to chirp at her. She noticed it had green eyes, but she could have sworn they all had black eyes. She shrugged mentally, telling herself it was just another one of his illusions.

"Glad you approve," she smiled at it. She had found herself giggling at their antics, but she hoped their destruction throughout her apartment was also part of the illusion.

Speaking of illusions, last night had been magical in many ways. Loki seemed to enjoy showing off his manipulative skills almost as much as their physical intimacy. In many ways he was like her, she thought.

Just thinking about their night together started tingles between her thighs and, damn, if her nipples didn't pucker slightly. He was unlike anyone she had ever been with; equally demanding and giving, all with tireless energy. He had woken her up at least three more times during the night for more. He had been considerate of her injury but still left her pleasantly sore.

Nova refused to think about what would happen between them once both her problems and the Chitauri were taken care of. She knew it was foolish to expect him to stick around after all, he was nearly immortal compared to her. She would just focus on enjoying whatever they had while she was here and deal with the rest later. She certainly wasn't going to fall in love with the Trickster. That would be stupid.

There was a shriek and a crash from inside the apartment. She laughed out loud. That was something that wouldn't disappear later!

She stood and stretched gingerly. Her side was feeling much better even if it was still sore, so she slipped out of her clothes and eased into the pool. She swam a few leisurely laps to work the kinks out of her muscles, then just floated and relaxed, visions of alien stars replacing the hazy Los Angeles afternoon sky.

Back at the hotel suite, Loki paced restlessly. He, Braggi, and Volstagg had already finalized their plans and the other two had left to gather what they would need on Saturday. Not having anything to do, Loki wanted nothing more than to return to Nova and pick up where they left off early this morning.

But he had stopped himself. What was he thinking? Nova was just a human woman, weak and short-lived; there was no future for the two of them, no matter how well they suited each other. He had stuck around, cloaked in invisibility, to watch the chaos caused by his latest prank and had been delighted to see her giggling over it. If she was an Asgardian, she would be the perfect consort for him. Oh, the havoc they could wreak together across the universe, he thought.

But she wasn't, so here he paced, waiting for the day to pass. If he only went to her at night, he could just pass it off as passion. Not infatuation. Certainly not love.

Nova was seated at her dining table having a light dinner, Nibbler on the floor at her feet, chirping and purring happily as it chewed on a fork. She had tried to slip it a morsel of her dinner despite knowing damn well it wasn't real, but it had sniffed the proffered treat then ignored it. Instead, it had fixed its strange green eyes on her and whined until she dropped a fork beside it.

Throughout the day, the little black and white critters had blinked out of existence as the illusion creating them expired or failed, but this little guy had yet to disappear. It had followed her around all day, never more than a handful of feet from her. She wondered if it was Loki's way of keeping an eye on her. The thought brought a flare of warmth inside her chest while it still irritated her that he felt he had to watch her.

The door opened and Loki walked in, dressed in jeans and a dark green button-down shirt. God, she thought, he looks sexy no matter what he wears.

She set her fork down, "productive day?"

He shrugged and sat down beside her, "not bad." He picked up a tomato from her plate and popped it in his mouth, "is that all you're eating?"

"What's wrong with my salad?"

"You're too thin," he told her.

"You didn't have any complaints last night," she snapped, her eyes flashing.

"You need to take better care of yourself," he continued as if she hadn't spoken.

Obviously, he was trying to provoke her, so she took the opportunity to respond in kind. "You can get rid of your little spy now."

"What spy?" he asked with confusion.

"Don't be coy," she said, leaning over and pointing out Nibbler under her chair. "That's the only one left and it's been following me all day long. I even gave it a name."

Loki's confusion only grew. "It should have disappeared hours ago."

The little creature looked up at Nova with its green eyes and chirped. In response, she grabbed a flower out of the table arrangement and tossed it on the floor in front of it. It pounced on the flower and chewed it, purring happily.

He looked at Nova in disbelief, "that's not possible."

"What's not possible?" she asked, intrigue replacing her irritation at him.

"I just tried to dissolve the illusion and it didn't work."

"Wait," she shook her head, "are you telling me that you can't make one of your own illusions go away?"

"There's something weird going on here," he told her.

"Well, at least it's cute," she smiled at it and it chirped happily at her.

Loki abruptly shoved his chair back and stood. "I have to go," he announced.

Nova frowned at him, "is it that big a deal?"

But he didn't answer as he hurried to the door and left. She threw her napkin down on the table with a huff.

"What the hell?"

Loki hadn't lost control of an illusion since he was a child and even back then losing control meant that it disappeared before he wanted it to or didn't do what it was supposed to do. Never had he had one that wouldn't end at his command. Now he had no one to ask about it. His mother, Frigga, was the one that had taught him how to use and control his magic and she was gone. All his books in his library were also lost to him, so he had nothing to consult.

Did it have something to do with her naming it? Who the hell names an illusion, especially when they know it's not real? He quickly discarded the notion, but there had to be a logical reason.

Fruitless hours later, he returned to the apartment. Nova had retired of the night and was asleep. The creature was curled up at the end of her bed. When he approached, it opened its eyes and actually growled at him. When he ignored it and reached out to touch the sleeping woman, it lunged at him. Sharp pain shot through his hand and he quickly pulled it away. Teeth marks pricked the back with tiny drops of blood. He examined the creature closer. He didn't remember making any with green eyes. Was there something else going on here?

No matter what he tried, it would not let him approach too close, so he slumped in the chair beside her and picked up the tablet and amused himself the rest of the evening reading from the endless supply of books.

Nova woke by herself in the bed, a slight weight at her feet marking the continued presence of Nibbler. A soft snore called her attention to the man at her side. She smiled as she watched him sleep, his face relaxed and boyishly innocent. She could miss him when he left, and the thought caused a sharp pain in her chest. She chided herself for being stupid.

She must have made a slight noise, because his eyes opened. For a brief moment, they were soft and caring, before becoming cool and aloof.

"What are you doing, sleeping in that chair?" she asked to cover her disappointment.

He sat up and a growl came from Nibbler at her feet, its eyes intent on him. "That damn thing won't let me near you." He held up his hand to show her the bite marks.

She burst out laughing, she couldn't help it. His own illusion bit him.

"It bit me," he said, unnecessarily.

"You didn't figure it out last night?" she asked.

He shook his head, "apparently not," he said sardonically.

She started to answer but was interrupted by a knock at her bedroom door. It was Lev, Vikton, and Barak. She asked them to give her a few minutes to shower and get dressed. Nibbler followed her into the bathroom.

She was too agitated to sit still, instead she paced her office while waiting for all the players to gather. The last person they were waiting on was from Los Zela and Santiago had assured her his man would be there.

As it had been throughout the day, Nibbler was nearby, chewing on a shot glass it had found under the couch. She had tried to leave it behind at the apartment, but when the elevator had stopped on the ground floor of her building, it was waiting in front of the doors. Then, they had tried to keep it out of the SUV, but it had attacked the vehicle and doing an inordinate amount of damage for such a small creature. Nova had finally relented when she had to change vehicles and allowed it inside with her.

"That thing gives me the creeps," Barak muttered to Viktor.

Lev put his cell phone down, "That was Santiago's man, Juaquin. He's on his way."

"Good, that's everyone and we still have an hour before showtime," she told them.

"Everything is going as planned," Lev assured her.

"I know, but there's still a lot that can go wrong."

Lev shrugged, "there's nothing we can do about it. We've done everything we can, from here on out, it's all up to fate."

"Fuck, fate," Nova muttered, pouring herself a strong drink.

Lev chuckled, "that's the spirit, Myshka!" Then he and the other two men left the office for last minute preparations, leaving her alone with Loki for the first time since that morning.

She physically blocked him from leaving the room, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. "Are you not talking to me now?" she challenged him.

"We don't have time for theatrics," he said impatiently and reached out to physically move her out his way.

She stepped back out of his reach, "are you kidding me? You are the fucking god of theatrics! You should be thrilled!"

"Even I can be serious when needed," he retorted and grabbed her by the shoulders.

A threatening growl came from beside them. Both looked down to see Nibbler at their feet, snarling at Loki.

"See that!" Loki released her and walked to the other side of the room. "I can't get near you without that thing threatening me!" His voice rose to a shout.

"Don't take your shit out on me!" She yelled back, getting angry. "That 'thing' is one of your creations. If it is fucked up, its because you fucked it up, whether intentional or not! So, own up to it!"

Loki started to yell back at her but stopped himself and looked thoughtful as if something had just occurred to him. He looked at her, then at the creature and shook his head and gave a rueful smile. He stood there for a long moment considering her words.

"You're right," he told her. "You're absolutely right." He sank down onto the couch. He gave a short laugh.

"What?" she asked him, leering of his mood change.

He looked up at her and gave her a sly grin, "come here."

"Why?" she asked cautiously.

"Come here and find out." He actually crooked his finger at her and gave her a look that sent chills up her spine. Good chills.

She approached him slowly, watching Nibbler as she did. Suddenly, it didn't seem to care about Loki. What the hell?

She stood over him, and he reached up and took her hand to pull her down to straddle him. Still nothing from Nibbler. He had truly lost interest.

"What did you do?" she asked him softly.

"I gave myself permission to do this," he said and pulled her to him and kissed her gently.

She melted into him as she kissed him back. When they finally parted, they were both glassy eyed with desire.

"We don't have time for this," she told him.

He sighed, "I know."

"Later, when it's over," she said leaning in to kiss the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, when it's over," he echoed, turning into her kiss and threading his fingers through her thick hair to hold her still while he plundered her mouth. She surrendered to his control and just reveled in the feel and taste of him.

Behind her, Nibbler blinked out of existence.


	15. Chapter 15: Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter 15

Just after 7:00 that evening, Ilia and his men pulled up outside the abandoned warehouse where Nova was supposed to meet with the B-Streeters. Another one of his men had been watching it and reported when she, Lev, Viktor, Barak, and three of her bodyguards had shown up. Shortly after that, four B-Streeters had arrived. Now they were all inside. Just sitting ducks waiting for him and his allies to put them down. Three cars full of Norteños and four SUVs carrying the triad men were right behind him.

There were four vehicles parked in front of the warehouse, confirming the presence of people inside. After conferring with his lookout, he knew he had them. He could almost taste the sweet success of victory.

They spread out and a group of each took an entrance. On command, they all burst in at the same time, surprising the small group in the middle of the warehouse. They opened fire and advance on the group, who pulled their guns and returned fire. Determined to survive, Ilia ducked behind some wooden crates to wait it out. They really didn't need him, there were enough to take care of Nova and her crew without him putting his life on the line. His men and their allies fired on the group until they ran out of bullets in their magazines.

When Ilia peeked over the crate, Nova and her people were in a bloody pile in the center. Ilia crept out of his hiding spot and joined the others as they scoured the bodies to ensure there were no survivors. In his head, Ilia was already celebrating.

Suddenly, the pile of bodies disappeared, and flood lights shown on them from the perimeter of the warehouse, blinding them.

Nova's voice floated to them from beyond the lights, "you always were an idiot Ilia. Did you really think it would be this easy?"

What the hell was happening? "You Bitch!" he screamed at her. "You don't deserve to run this business, you worthless slut!"

Her laughter echoed through the building. "Reduced to name calling like a child on the playground. That's why I would never date you. You were too pathetic."

Ilia's blood boiled at her insults. That bitch always thought she was better than him just because of her daddy. "Come out here and say that to my face!" he screamed, spittle flying.

There was no answer except the sounds of bullets being chambered.

"I've had enough of this asshole," Nova told Lev and Viktor, checking that the safety was off on her gun. "Kill them all."

Lev gave the signal and they open fired on the men in the middle of the warehouse and all hell broke loose. There were a lot more people in the warehouse than Ilia knew about. They had arrived over an hour early and parked several blocks away. Nova alone had fifteen men, including Lev, Viktor, and Barak. The Los Zelas man, Juaquin, had brought ten men and the new leader of the B-Street Boys had brought eight. Loki and his two companions brought their total up to thirty-nine, making the two groups almost evenly matched.

But Nova had Loki on her side and he was the master of illusion. It was his illusion of her and a smaller group that brought Ilia and his men in guns blazing and drew them into the center of the warehouse so they could be easily targeted. Now, Loki used his skills to multiply their numbers and confuse their enemy even more. Ilia and his people were wasting bullets on targets that weren't even there.

The warehouse was in mass confusion; bullets flying and people running everywhere. Nova saw Ilia duck behind some crates and took off after him. There was no way she was going to let him get away. A statement had to be made, a line drawn. Nobody fucks with her business and lives. She skirted the edge of the fight, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. One of the triad's men had gotten smart and ordered his guys to shoot out the flood lamps. Some of the Norteños had followed suit and now only about a third of the lamps were still working.

She made it to a position where she could just make out Ilia behind the crates and started to creep closer to get a clear shot. She aimed for the back of his head and was about to pull the trigger, when a movement at one of the doors caught her eye. It was Dax and four other men slipping in the door and making their way towards the others. She was about to call a warning out to her men, when the cold, hard barrel of a gun touched the back of her head.

"Drop your gun," Ilia ordered her.

Not having a choice, she allowed her gun to fall to the floor. Ilia grabbed her arm in a painful grip and spun her around to face him.

"Now, who's the idiot?" he sneered at her and put the gun against her head just above her eyes.

Nova only saw a blur of green, then Ilia dropped the gun and looked at her in incomprehension. In the middle of his chest protruded the handle of a dagger, a growing stain of blood turning his blue shirt dark red. His lips moved, but no sound came out as he collapsed, dead at her feet.

Loki spun her to face him, "are you alright?"

She nodded, then said, "I just saw Dax come in."

"Who?" he asked, not understanding.

"The Chitauri," she explained. Ducking behind the crated for cover, she scanned the warehouse. "There!" she pointed. "That's him."

Loki smiled and gave her a quick, hard kiss, "thanks!" Then he was running towards where she had pointed. She smiled at his back and turned to shoot a member of the triad as he ran in front of the crates. The number of people still standing was definitely smaller, the bodies on the floor piling up. They had to hurry up and end this. Her police connections could only slow down the response for so long.

Throwing a look back at Loki, she prepared to join Lev, when she saw two of the men that entered with Dax circling behind him. He was going to be caught in the middle of the three. She yelled a warning, but he didn't hear her over the noise. She changed direction and circled around to where they were, but they were directly across from her and it would take time for her to get there. She was afraid she wouldn't be there on time.

Fear gripped her such as she had not felt since she was a little girl. She was not going to lose Loki. Not when she had just found him. Not when she had just realized how much he meant to her. She took off straight through the mass of bodies and bullets towards him.

She watched in horror as one of the imposters raised a weapon the likes of which she had never seen and target him with it. She screamed his name and he turned just in time to duck out of the way. The blast from the weapon knocked another of the flood lights instead. Loki stabbed the Chitauri several times with his daggers and it fell at his feet. Then he turned towards the second one and engaged it, slashing its throat with one flash of his dagger.

Dax was still behind him, though and he raised his alien weapon. Nova lept the last steps and flung herself at Loki as he fired.

Loki was thinking that these Chitauri were not the cream of the crop, that was probably why they weren't part of either of the battles that the rest of their race had perished in. They were just too easy to dispatch. But Nova's warning was timely, allowing him to get the jump on the two coming up behind him.

As he slit the second ones' throat, he caught Nova with his periphral vision and spun to catch her. She hit his body with a lot more force than she should have, her eyes wide. Over her shoulder, he saw the Chitauri standing with his weapon smoking from being fired, then spinning away to face Braggi. A strange sound from Nova drew his attention back to her.

Blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth, and her breath gurgled as she gasped again.

"I'm getting blood all over your pretty clothes," she whispered.

He lowered her to the ground and held her to him. "I've got more," he told her gently as he pushed her hair out of her face with a hand that shook.

She gasped again and more blood trickled down her chin, she looked up at him and raised a hand to his face, touching his lips. He kissed her fingertips, tasting her blood on them.

"Loki," she struggled to speak, "I..,"

"It's okay," he told her, tears in his eyes. "Save your breath. You can tell me later, when it's over." He bent his head and kissed her lips tenderly.

"Loki," she breathed, but then her eyes grew distant and she went limp in his arms.

He hugged her body to him, tears running down his face, "I love you, too," he whispered.

Then he laid her gently on the floor and stood. "Chitauri!" He bellowed.

Braggi had knocked the weapon out of the Chitauri's hand and they were circling each other looking for an opening. At Loki's yell, they both froze and turned towards him. He sprinted to where they were standing, shoving any human that got in his way roughly aside. One was foolish enough to point a gun at him, but Loki stabbed him in the neck as he passed.

The Chitauri dropped his disguise and changed back into its true form and screamed a challenge at the oncoming Asgardian, holding its long sharp claws out, ready to slash and maim. Loki threw himself at the Chitauri and it swiped at him, but at the last instant, Loki darted to the side and ducked under its arm, striking out with his dagger and leaving a long gash in its side.

The Chitauri swung around to face Loki, but even though it was taller and more muscular than him, it was slightly slower, and Loki was buried two of his daggers deep into its back, before dodging out of the way of its claws. His eyes blazing, he threw two more is quick succession, one reaching its mark in the Chitauri's midsection, too low to be lethal, but adding to the damage being inflicted. In their native forms, Chitauri were tough and hard to kill. Armed with only his daggers, Loki would have to get in past its long claws and land a direct hit to something vital, like its brain or heart, both encased in thick, boney armor. He would have to rely on his speed, stamina, and illusions to wear down the Chitauri and wait for his chance to strike.

Two additional versions of him appeared and began to circle the Chitauri. It watched warily, looking for a clue to indicate which one of the three was real. One of the Loki's lunged towards its exposed side and it swung its long arm to block, another Loki went low, trying to eviscerate, and it blocked with the other arm. Both arms passed through the apparitions and crossed in front of its body, the third Loki leaped forward and used its crossed arms as a step to vault up and over its head, striking at its throat as he flipped over. The Chitauri was ready, knowing this was the real version of Loki and slammed its fists into him as he struck to send him flying across the space.

It roared with surprise when its fists met only air. The real Loki appeared behind it and agilely leapt onto its back, slashing two daggers deep across its exposed throat, nearly severing its head, before jumping clear. The Chitauri dropped to its knees, grey blood gushing from the fatal wound, but did not collapse. It struggled to climb back to its feet and face Loki once again.

Suddenly, a spray of bullets caught the Chitauri, sending chunks of grey flesh and gore flying. Lev and Viktor stepped up to either side of Loki, emptying their magazines into the creature. When they ran out of ammo, the warehouse fell eerily silent. The Chituari chuffed once, then fell forward onto the floor and didn't move again.

Loki spun and disappeared. Across the warehouse, a door to the outside opened and slammed shut with his passing.

The Cathedral was packed, and still more people waited outside to pay their respects to who many local papers were calling the 'Secret First Lady of Los Angeles'. The first row was occupied by Nova's loyal lieutenants, Lev, Viktor, and Barak, and the rows behind them were full of her employees. City officials and the elite occupied the rest of the pews. No less than a dozen people spoke, telling stories of how Nova had touched their lives and made them better for it, or how she was a champion of the downtrodden.

Loki stood in the back, an illusion hiding him from the masses, almost laughed out loud at some of the shit they were saying. Nova would have, he thought, if she could hear it. She never pretended to be anything other than what she was: a criminal. Albeit, a highly influential criminal, but one, nonetheless. She had been proud of her status as the crime queen of the west coast.

Unable to stand the drivel these people were dishing out, he wandered up the aisle and looked down upon her still face in the coffin. At least she would have been pleased by how she looked. Not a hair was out of place, her dress was immaculate, and he was willing to bet her feet were shod in her favorite pair of Louboutin's. She looked cold and untouchable, just like in life.

Sitting on top of her casket was Nibbler, munching happily on the floral arrangement. Sensing his eyes upon it, the little creature looked up and growled menacingly at him.

"Yeah, I know," he muttered at it, low enough for those around not to hear. Quickly shutting down the feelings of remorse that rose, he turned and marched out of the cathedral and out into the late morning sun.

Waiting outside, leaning against a black sedan parked across the road was Nick Fury, casually waiting on Loki as if he was certain he would be here. Loki started to stay invisible and pass him by, but curiosity got the best of him and he stopped and leaned beside him, dropping the illusion.

"I was wondering if you were just going to ignore me," Fury told him.

"I should have," Loki responded.

"Is everything taken care of?"

Loki nodded, "all the Chitauri have been located and no more bodies have been found. We got them all."

"Good." Fury said.

They stood in silence for a moment before Loki blurted, "are we done here?"

Fury turned to him with an eyebrow raised, "that depends."

"On what?"

"Whether you are tired of just drifting around, not doing anything with yourself. Tying up resources to keep an eye on you," Fury answered.

Loki considered his words. Maybe he should take a page from Nova's book and own what he was. He nodded, "I think I am."

"Good!" Fury said, "Welcome to the Avengers! I need someone to go to…,"

"No, you misunderstood me," Loki stopped him with a grin. "I'm not an Avenger. I am not one of the good guys. I am Loki the Trickster, Prince of Lies, and if you will excuse me, there is mischief to be made!"

With that declaration, he strode off. A few steps away, he turned back and looked at Nibbler, who was chewing on the tire of Fury's car; a tire that was decidedly flat.

"Are you coming?" he asked it.

It chirped and scampered after him on its stubby legs and they both disappeared.

"Just fucking great," Fury said to nobody in particular. Then, "will someone come fix this damn tire!"


	16. Chapter 15: Alternate Ending

Four months ago when I first wrote this ending, it made perfect sense to me. Now, I'm not happy with it at all. So I rewrote the ending. For those of you who are like me and hate the original ending, I hope you like this one better! Enjoy!

Chapter 15 (Alternate Ending)

Just after 7:00 that evening, Ilia and his men pulled up outside the abandoned warehouse where Nova was supposed to meet with the B-Streeters. Another one of his men had been watching it and reported when she, Lev, Viktor, Barak, and three of her bodyguards had shown up. Shortly after that, four B-Streeters had arrived. Now they were all inside. Just sitting ducks waiting for him and his allies to put them down. Three cars full of Norteños and four SUVs carrying the triad men were right behind him.

There were four vehicles parked in front of the warehouse, confirming the presence of people inside. After conferring with his lookout, he knew he had them. He could almost taste the sweet success of victory.

They spread out and a group of each took an entrance. On command, they all burst in at the same time, surprising the small group in the middle of the warehouse. They opened fire and advance on the group, who pulled their guns and returned fire. Determined to survive, Ilia ducked behind some wooden crates to wait it out. They really didn't need him, there were enough to take care of Nova and her crew without him putting his life on the line. His men and their allies fired on the group until they ran out of bullets in their magazines.

When Ilia peeked over the crate, Nova and her people were in a bloody pile in the center. Ilia crept out of his hiding spot and joined the others as they scoured the bodies to ensure there were no survivors. In his head, Ilia was already celebrating.

Suddenly, the pile of bodies disappeared, and flood lights shown on them from the perimeter of the warehouse, blinding them.

Nova's voice floated to them from beyond the lights, "you always were an idiot Ilia. Did you really think it would be this easy?"

What the hell was happening? "You Bitch!" he screamed at her. "You don't deserve to run this business, you worthless slut!"

Her laughter echoed through the building. "Reduced to name calling like a child on the playground. That's why I would never date you. You were too pathetic."

Ilia's blood boiled at her insults. That bitch always thought she was better than him just because of her daddy. "Come out here and say that to my face!" he screamed, spittle flying.

There was no answer except the sounds of bullets being chambered.

"I've had enough of this asshole," Nova told Lev and Viktor, checking that the safety was off on her gun. "Kill them all."

Lev gave the signal and they open fired on the men in the middle of the warehouse and all hell broke loose. There were a lot more people in the warehouse than Ilia knew about. They had arrived over an hour early and parked several blocks away. Nova alone had fifteen men, including Lev, Viktor, and Barak. The Los Zelas man, Juaquin, had brought ten men and the new leader of the B-Street Boys had brought eight. Loki and his two companions brought their total up to thirty-nine, making the two groups almost evenly matched.

But Nova had Loki on her side, and he was the master of illusion. It was his illusion of her and a smaller group that brought Ilia and his men in guns blazing and drew them into the center of the warehouse so they could be easily targeted. Now, Loki used his skills to multiply their numbers and confuse their enemy even more. Ilia and his people were wasting bullets on targets that weren't even there.

The warehouse was in mass confusion; bullets flying and people running everywhere. Nova saw Ilia duck behind some crates and took off after him. There was no way she was going to let him get away. A statement had to be made, a line drawn. Nobody fucks with her business and lives. She skirted the edge of the fight, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. One of the triad's men had gotten smart and ordered his guys to shoot out the flood lamps. Some of the Norteños had followed suit and now only about a third of the lamps were still working.

She made it to a position where she could just make out Ilia behind the crates and started to creep closer to get a clear shot. She aimed for the back of his head and was about to pull the trigger, when a movement at one of the doors caught her eye. It was Dax and four other men slipping in the door and making their way towards the others. She was about to call a warning out to her men, when the cold, hard barrel of a gun touched the back of her head.

"Drop your gun," Ilia ordered her.

Not having a choice, she allowed her gun to fall to the floor. Ilia grabbed her arm in a painful grip and spun her around to face him.

"Now, who's the idiot?" he sneered at her and put the gun against her head just above her eyes.

Nova only saw a blur of green, then Ilia dropped the gun and looked at her in incomprehension. In the middle of his chest protruded the handle of a dagger, a growing stain of blood turning his blue shirt dark red. His lips moved, but no sound came out as he collapsed, dead at her feet.

Loki spun her to face him, "are you alright?"

She nodded, then said, "I just saw Dax come in."

"Who?" he asked, not understanding.

"The Chitauri," she explained. Ducking behind the crated for cover, she scanned the warehouse. "There!" she pointed. "That's him."

Loki smiled and gave her a quick, hard kiss, "thanks!" Then he was running towards where she had pointed. She smiled at his back and turned to shoot a member of the triad as he ran in front of the crates. The number of people still standing was definitely smaller, the bodies on the floor piling up. They had to hurry up and end this. Her police connections could only slow down the response for so long.

She looked around and located Lev pinned down behind a crate by three Norteños. All her other men and allies nearby were occupied and could not go to his aid. As she started towards him, she saw him take a bullet to the shoulder and drop to the ground.

Fear gripped her such as she had not felt since she was a little girl. She was not going to lose Lev. He had always been there for her and there was none that she trusted more. She took off straight through the mass of bodies and bullets towards him shooting anyone unlucky enough to get in her way. She was fast running out of ammo, but there were guns scattered on the floor where they had been dropped as their owners went down. She paused long enough to snatch up a Desert Eagle by the body of a member of the Triad.

Coming up on their left side, she shot the first man before they realized she was there and used his body as a shield when the man beside him turned his fire on her. He, too, went down with two well-placed bullets to the chest, leaving only two more to deal with. Dropping her human shield, Nova dashed to the nearest crate and dove behind it. A bullet clipped the crate near her head, and she caught a spray of splinters on the side of her face. They burned, but with adrenalin pumping through her, they didn't slow her down much.

From her vantage point, she could see Lev behind his crate struggling to reach the gun he had dropped. Closing her eyes for a brief prayer of thanks, Nova fired off a round to keep the Norteños focused on her and buy Lev time.

On the other side of warehouse, one of the imposters raised his energy weapon and targeted Loki with it. Braggi yelled a warning and he turned just in time to duck out of the way. The blast from the weapon knocked another of the flood lights instead. Loki stabbed the Chitauri several times with his daggers and it fell at his feet. Then he turned towards the second one and engaged it, slashing its throat with one flash of his dagger.

Loki was thinking that these Chitauri were not the cream of the crop, that was probably why they weren't part of either of the battles that the rest of their race had perished in. They were just too easy to dispatch. But he still needed to take out their leader. Loki looked around but couldn't find him.

Nova had distracted the Norteños long enough for Lev to reach his gun and sit up behind the crate. He looked over at Nova behind hers and she held up two fingers indicating how many were left shooting at them and then their relative locations. Lev motioned back that he would take the one closest to him and she nodded and did a count with her fingers. On three, both of them jumped up and fired on their respective targets, watching with satisfaction as both collapsed to the floor.

Nova hurried over to Lev. "Are you okay?"

"I think it went clean through. I'll be okay for now," he answered. "Let's finish this and get the hell out of here."

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and looked over the crate at the action around them. The body count was high; she was down by at least a third of her men and allies, but the others were much worse off. She could only identify about six or seven of them left and they were pinned down by the majority of her men.

She was about to stand and join them when a large, clawed hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"I've got you now," the leader of the Chitauri growled in her ear as he hauled her to her feet and drug her out from behind the protection of the crate.

On the other side, Loki froze as he saw the Chitauri dragging Nova out into the open, his deadly claws too close to her vulnerable neck and his weapon pointed towards her people. He had dropped his disguise and no longer looked human.

"ENOUGH!" he roared, the sound being amplified and echoed by the empty interior of the warehouse.

Nova's men instantly froze, and her allies followed suit. The warehouse became eerily quiet.

"Put down your weapons, or I will rip this bitch's head off."

One by one, Nova's men complied, but the men from Las Zelas looked to Juaquin.

He shook his head, "she's not my boss. I don't care what you do with her," he sneered at the Chitauri.

The new leader of the B-Street boys also shook his head, "me neither."

The Chitauri squeezed Nova's neck and she made a choking noise and began to struggle but she was too small and weak to do any good. The Chitauri grinned showing his teeth and lifter her off the ground with his arm.

Loki started forward, but there was a sharp report that echoed through the quiet building. From behind the Chitauri, Loki saw Lev, one arm hanging at his side, the other holding a gun that he had just shot the alien with.

The Chitauri roared in anger, dropped Nova, and spun to confront Lev. Loki took advantage of the distraction to sprint towards Nova with the intention of getting her out of harm's way. But Nova had other plans. When the alien dropped her, she fell and rolled free of his feet and to where she had seen a gun laying on the floor just a few feet away. Grabbing the gun, she sprang up into a crouch and fired at the Chitauri's back, emptying the bullets remaining in the clip.

Between her shots and Lev's, they managed to slow the creature down, but not stop it. Braggi leapt between it and Lev and managed to knock the weapon out of the Chitauri's hand then circled it looking for an opening. At Loki's yell, they both froze and turned towards him. He sprinted to where they were standing, shoving any human that got in his way roughly aside.

The Chitauri dropped his disguise and changed back into its true form and screamed a challenge at the oncoming Asgardian, holding its long sharp claws out, ready to slash and maim. Loki threw himself at the Chitauri and it swiped at him, but at the last instant, Loki darted to the side and ducked under its arm, striking out with his dagger and leaving a long gash in its side.

The Chitauri swung around to face Loki, but even though it was taller and more muscular than him, it was slightly slower, and Loki was buried two of his daggers deep into its back, before dodging out of the way of its claws. His eyes blazing, he threw two more is quick succession, one reaching its mark in the Chitauri's midsection, too low to be lethal, but adding to the damage being inflicted. In their native forms, Chitauri were tough and hard to kill. Armed with only his daggers, Loki would have to get in past its long claws and land a direct hit to something vital, like its brain or heart, both encased in thick, boney armor. He would have to rely on his speed, stamina, and illusions to wear down the Chitauri and wait for his chance to strike.

Two additional versions of him appeared and began to circle the Chitauri. It watched warily, looking for a clue to indicate which one of the three was real. One of the Loki's lunged towards its exposed side and it swung its long arm to block, another Loki went low, trying to eviscerate, and it blocked with the other arm. Both arms passed through the apparitions and crossed in front of its body, the third Loki leaped forward and used its crossed arms as a step to vault up and over its head, striking at its throat as he flipped over. The Chitauri was ready, knowing this was the real version of Loki and slammed its fists into him as he struck to send him flying across the space.

It roared with surprise when its fists met only air. The real Loki appeared behind it and agilely leapt onto its back, slashing two daggers deep across its exposed throat, nearly severing its head, before jumping clear. The Chitauri dropped to its knees, grey blood gushing from the fatal wound, but did not collapse. It struggled to climb back to its feet and face Loki once again.

Suddenly, a spray of bullets caught the Chitauri, sending chunks of grey flesh and gore flying. Viktor, Juaquin, and their men had stepped up to either side of Loki, emptying their magazines into the creature. When they ran out of ammo, the warehouse fell eerily silent. The Chituari chuffed once, then fell forward onto the floor and didn't move again.

Nova shakily stood and surveyed the warehouse. The few Norteños and Triad members that were still alive were fleeing and her people made no move to stop them. A shadow fell across her line of sight and she looked up into a pair of concerned green eyes as Loki stepped close and pulled her into his arms. She rested her face on his chest and grimaced at the sting of the wounds from the splinters.

"I'm getting blood all over your pretty clothes," she whispered.

He chuckled and held her to him. "I'll get more," he told her gently as he pushed her hair out of her face.

"We need to get out of here before the police arrive," Viktor said from behind her.

She pushed away from Loki, "Okay, let's go. Leave the bodies. The police will think it was a fight between them and the aliens."


	17. Chapter 16: Alternate Ending

Here is the continuation of the alternate ending.

Chapter 16 (Alternate Ending)

Two months had passed since the shootout. As expected, the police chalked it up to a fight between the aliens and street gangs. The papers had been conspicuously quiet about the whole affair. Nova could only guess that Nick Fury was behind the suppression of the stories. Luckily, nobody had connected any of it to her and her people.

They had regrouped at the Fire Bird afterwards and gone over their stories just in case the police did come asking. Loki and the other Asgardians had left them at the warehouse after ensuring her wounds were superficial, but only after he threatened her men if they let anything else happen to her before he returned.

Nova's days had been full ever since. The next day she had started the process of putting her empire back to rights. Juaquin and Las Zelas picked up the reigns from the triad and were her primary supplier for heroin now. She would still have to deal with the remnants of the triad, but that could wait until she had her house back in order. Despite their reputation for being unpredictable and chaotic, Las Zelas had been solid in their backing and levelheaded in their dealings with Barak and her so far. Only time would tell if it was just the honeymoon period of their relationship.

Viktor had cleaned house on his end and almost a half-dozen of his employees suddenly had to leave town. He had picked a new second last week; surprisingly it was woman, Lorna Olegovna. Nova had met her once but didn't know enough about her to have an opinion, so she decided to trust Viktor. Between the two of them, the new arrangement with the B-Streeters was working out well, if not completely smoothly. The Norteños had lost a large portion of their territory in L.A. to the other gang and were off licking their wounds and reorganizing. When they returned in force, which they would in time, Nova and her people would be there to back up the B-Streeters.

She had sent Lev back to his family on the east coast as soon as he could travel, despite his protests. She told him family was more important and that he was released from all other obligations to her. She would miss him, but she had leaned on him as a crutch for too long. Before he left, he had given her a few recommendations for his replacement at her security manager. She had met with each of them and had selected a retired Israeli soldier, Ari Basch. He had started three weeks ago and had already upset several people in her organization, including herself. Ari had hired her an all new contingent of bodyguards, mostly Israeli. She now had a rotation of six men and three women that watched over her in groups of three 24/7, even when she went to the bathroom. Her former bodyguards were disbursed among Viktor and Barak.

She had even hired a personal assistant to help her keep up with everything. She had discovered that one of the strippers at the Grey Goose had a master's degree in business and finance. It seemed a shame for it to be wasted on dancing naked for a bunch of horny men.

The only part of her life not going smoothly was the personal side of it. Loki had not made a reappearance and she refused to drive herself to distraction by hoping for his return. She threw herself into the business and politics and worked late into each night before finally going to bed and falling into an exhausted but restless sleep. It was hard not to miss him, though. Especially since, when she arrived back at her penthouse, she had found Nibbler sitting in the middle of her bed, eating her feather pillow. Endearing as the little creature was, he was a constant reminder of the Asgardian.

After treating Nibbler with caution the first couple of weeks, the creature soon became kind of a mascot to her people. They had even made a game out of bringing things for it to eat. One of her bartenders at the Fire Bird had even fed it her engagement ring after she caught her fiancé cheating on her. Viktor had joked that they could feed it any of their competitors that they took out so that the body would never be found.

"Lisa are you sure about these numbers?" she asked the young woman sitting at her own desk in the office at the Fire Bird.

"I checked them three times, so yeah, I'm sure."

Nova nodded absently, "get me Viktor on the line."

Lisa didn't respond, she just dialed Viktor's number. When he answered she routed the call to Nova.

"Have you seen the numbers for last month?" Nova asked without preamble.

"Yes, Gospozha. They are good, no?"

"They are up 18% from before. That's very good. Almost too good."

"It seems that the Norteños used quite a bit of the product themselves," Viktor informed her. "So, it's probably going to go up even more in the next two months before it levels off."

"That's interesting. Just keep a close eye on it. I don't know if I'm completely convinced."

"Yes, Gospozha. I will."

After the call, Nova leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. It was late and time to call it the night.

"Call the car around. Let's go home."

One of her new bodyguards, David was dispatched to bring the car around to the door in the alley. They no longer let her come and go through the club during business hours, so she came and went through the back entrance now.

Gathering up the papers she had been reading and locking them in the security cabinet, Nova felt the urge to do something different tonight. "Lisa, can you call Thea and Megan and see if they are available tonight?"

Lisa looked up from her desk in surprise. She knew about Nova's proclivity for sleeping with some of her employees, but she hadn't shown any interest in anyone since the attempted coup. Her boss had been a lot more standoffish since then. Maybe she was feeling more like her old self, Lisa thought as she picked up the phone to call backstage at the Grey Goose.

Sometime after midnight, Nova woke up. Not sure what exactly had awakened her, she checked Thea laying beside her, but the blonde was still sound asleep and from the sound of Megan's breathing so was she. She frowned as she realized that she could see Thea in the low-level light. Her room was normally pitch black at night; it was an interior room with no windows, and she didn't have any nightlights or illuminated clocks. She shouldn't have been able to see at all.

She gently moved Megan's arm that was draped across her middle and sat up to look around. The light was coming from her tablet balanced on Loki's knee as he read.

Letting out her breath in a hiss, she said, "so you decided to come back finally."

He looked up from his reading as if just noticing she was awake and gave her a cocky grin, "it looks like you had a fun evening."

Ignoring his comment about her sex life, she threw the covers back and crawled out of bed, careful not to awake the two women. Naked, she looked around trying to locate her robe in the dim light. A polite cough from Loki got her attention. He was holding it up for her. She snatched it out of his hand and pulled it on as she walked out of the room leaving him to follow her. Out in the main part of the apartment, it was quiet.

"Where are my men?" she asked him as he joined her, shutting the bedroom door behind him.

He grinned at her again, "they are probably still chasing you down on the street below."

"Chasing me?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, they think they're chasing you," he shrugged.

"I should just fucking shoot you." She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, then went to the bar to poor herself a drink. "What do you want?"

His cocky grin faltered, "what do you mean?"

"You're kidding, right?" She spun back to him; her eyes wide. "You disappear for two months without a single word. Hell, you barely said goodbye, you were in such a big hurry to leave!" She stepped up to him and snarled up at him. "Now you just show back up like nothing is wrong and start fucking with my staff again. What are you expecting? Me to welcome you back with open arms?"

Loki didn't back down at her ferocity, instead he snarled back, "woman, don't take that tone with me. I came back as soon as I could!"

His response pushed her temper over the edge, and she raised a hand to slap him, her eyes flashing. Before her hand could make contact, he easily caught it and pulled her into his body. Fisting a handful of her hair, he held her still and kissed her hard. She put her free hand against his chest and tried to push him back, but it was like pushing on a wall. She struggled against him for a brief moment, before giving in to his demanding kiss, her hand snaking up around his neck and pulling him towards her instead.

A sound behind him made them break the kiss.

"Don't mind us," Thea smiled as she and Megan walked out of the bedroom and towards the entrance of the apartment.

Nova looked around Loki, "if you see my bodyguards, tell them that they are a bunch of idiots."

Megan giggled and Thea nodded, then they left.

She took advantage of the distraction to step away from Loki, but he still held her hand and didn't let her get far.

"I'm still mad at you."

His bright green eyes twinkled down at her, "I wouldn't expect anything else from you." He tugged her hand, "come, let's talk."

She walked with him outside into the cool air of the early morning. The moon was full and bright and there wasn't any haze to dim its light, so they easily found their way to chairs at the side of the pool.

"What kept you?" she asked.

"Fury. He thinks I'm one of his damned Avengers now."

She snorted a very un-ladylike laugh, "I wonder what gave him that idea?"

He joined her laughing. "Apparently, he's under the delusion that I'm one of the good guys."

"Idiot."

"Yeah."

Their laughter died down and they sat in companionable silence for a while.

Finally, Nova said in a quiet voice, "I'm not good at this."

Loki understood what she meant. "Neither am I. I guess we are going to have to figure it out together."

She looked at him with her eyebrows raised, "you're willing to try?"

Bright mischievous green eyes met cool blue eyes, "are you?"

Both of them grinned and she got up and held out her hand to him, "come on. I'll let you make up to me."

"Make up to you?" he laughed. "I think you need to thank me for saving you and your business!"

"Saving me? If I recall correctly, me and my men shot the fucker and killed it."

"Ah, no, it was already dead before you started firing!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

Their laughter filled the night as they bickered on their way back into the penthouse. Left on the patio by itself, Nibbler chirped and started chewing on a chair leg.


End file.
